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Due to the high value of its dielectric constant, polyimide does not meet the requirements of the development of integrated circuits and high-frequency printed circuits. The development of novel low dielectric constant polyimide materials for the preparation of flexible copper clad laminates is of theoretical and practical significance in the application of polyimide for 5G communications. In this work, different fluorinated graphene/polyamic acids (FG/PAA) were used as the precursor, and the porous polyimide film was successfully prepared by phase inversion. The dielectric constant of the porous polyimide film is relatively low, being less than 1.7. When the content of fluorinated graphene is 0.5 wt%, the overall dielectric performance of the porous film is the best, with a dielectric constant of 1.56 (10 kHz) and a characteristic breakdown field strength of 56.39 kV/mm. In addition, the mechanical properties of the film are relatively poor, with tensile strengths of 13.87 MPa (0.2 wt%), 13.61 MPa (0.5 wt%), and 6.25 MPa (1.0 wt%), respectively. Therefore, further improving the breakdown resistance and mechanical properties of the porous film is essential for the application of porous ultra-low dielectric polyimide materials.

Several kinds of polyimide (PI) films stemmed out of 4, 4’−diaminodiphenyl ether, as well as various structurally various aromatic dianhydride, were prepared. The films’ mechanical, dielectric, and dynamic mechanical attributes were put under investigation. According the findings, the PI films’ performance is significantly different as a result of their diverse structure. PI’s dielectric constant and dielectric loss tangent of abides by the increasing order below: PMDA-PI>BTDA-PI>BPDA-PI. Moreover, the electric breakdown strength of BTDA-PI (478.90 kV/mm) presents a lot higher value compared to the one PMDA-PI (326.80 kV/mm) and BPDA-PI (357.07 kV/mm). In particular, BTDA-PI film possesses high electric breakdown strength about 478.90 kV/mm. In addition, PI’s glass transition temperature (Tg) are, respectively, 276 °C (BTDA-PI), and 290 °C (BPDA-PI), as well as 302 °C (PMDA-PI). Therefore, in virtue of their various structures and performances, practical applications of PI films can exert significant role in the electronics and microelectronics industries.

Colloidal photonic crystal (PC)-based anti-counterfeiting materials have been widely studied due to their inimitable structural colors and tunable photonic band gaps (PBGs) as well as their convenient identification methods. In this review, we summarize recent developments of colloidal PCs in the field of anti-counterfeiting from aspects of security strategies, design, and fabrication principles, and identification means. Firstly, an overview of the strategies for constructing PC anti-counterfeiting materials composed of variable color PC patterns, invisible PC prints, and several other PC anti-counterfeiting materials is presented. Then, the synthesis methods, working principles, security level, and specific identification means of these three types of PC materials are discussed in detail. Finally, the summary of strengths and challenges, as well as development prospects in the attractive research field, are presented.

Photonic crystal (PC) thin films that are self-assembled from different-sized silica microspheres were prepared for studying mechanical properties via nanoindentation at the submicron scale. We found that the silica photonic crystals (PCs) possessed a face-centered cubic (FCC) microstructure and their elastic modulus and hardness were in the range of ~1.81⁻4.92 GPa and 0.008⁻0.033 GPa, respectively. The calculated results proved that there were size-dependent properties in the silica PCs, in that the elastic modulus and hardness increased as the diameter decreased from 538 nm to 326 nm. After studying the total work and plastic work in the progressive deformation of silica PCs during the nanoindentation tests, we developed a two-stage deformation model to explain how the microsphere size affects the mechanical properties of PC thin films. The phenomenon of “smaller is stronger„ is mainly due to the energy consumption, which combines the effects of microstructure collapse, microsphere slide, and reduced porosity during the whole loading and unloading process. In addition, the results of numerical simulation matched the experimental data and reflected the energy change rules of PCs during the indentation process. Furthermore, the study affords useful guidance for constructing high-performance films with proper design and potential application in next-generation PC materials.

Three-dimensional photonic crystals of zirconia were prepared by electrodeposition in a colloidal crystals template following calcination at 500 °C. Scanning electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, X-ray diffraction, and reflectance spectroscopy were employed to characterize the photonic crystals of zirconia. It was found that hydrated zirconium ions could penetrate the colloidal crystals template and reach the substrate easily by electrodeposition, which resulted in stronger bonding between the substrate and the as-deposited membrane. Moreover, the electrodeposited membrane had low water content, leading to a low amount of shrinkage during calcination. Both these properties could suppress detachment from the substrate upon removal of the colloidal crystals template. Therefore, the three-dimensional photonic crystals of zirconia synthesized in this study exhibited very good preservation of the ordered structures of the colloidal crystals template with a high density. A peak of reflection higher than 70% was formed in the reflectance spectrum because of the strong diffraction of the ordered structures.