Structural color printings have broad applications due to their advantages of long-term sustainability, eco-friendly manufacturing, and ultra-high resolution. However, most of them require costly and time-consuming fabrication processes from nanolithography to vacuum deposition and etching. Here, we demonstrate a new color printing technology based on polymer-assisted photochemical metal deposition (PPD), a room temperature, ambient, and additive manufacturing process without requiring heating, vacuum deposition or etching. The PPD-printed silver films comprise densely aggregated silver nanoparticles filled with a small amount (estimated <20% volume) of polymers, producing a smooth surface (roughness 2.5 nm) even better than vacuum-deposited silver films (roughness 2.8 nm) at ~4 nm thickness. Further, the printed composite films have a much larger effective refractive index
- Publication Date:
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10365149
- Journal Name:
- Light: Science & Applications
- Volume:
- 11
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2047-7538
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing Group
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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