Stretching polymer opal fibers tunes structural color.

The article reports on the polymer opal photonic-crystal fibers which can exhibit stretch-tunable color based on its self-assembled submicron core-shell particles. The fibers' stretch-tunable spectrum is a potential candidate for a range of nanomaterials and clothing fabrics that have strong structural color effects to replace toxic and photodegradable dyes. The fibers show changes in color when stretched and these color changes occur due to the decrease of the interplanar distance.