Chapter HIERARCHICALLY ORDERED COLLOIDAL CRYSTALS : FABRICATION , STRUCTURES , AND FUNCTIONS

Marrying nanochemistry with optics has opened a new gateway to design and fabricate novel nanostructures that can interact with light in unprecedented manners. Self-assembled colloidal photonic crystal is one of the emerged nanostructured photonic materials, which possess well-defined, highly ordered structure and periodicities of light wavelength. Various 2D and 3D ordered structures have been fabricated through self-assembly methods by employing latex colloidal particles, or functionalized latex particles with more sophisticated structural features such as core-shell and anisotropy. The unique ordered structure and light-interactive properties have afforded them versatile functionalities in light manipulation, catalysis, sensing, and light harvesting. In this book chapter, we review recent research progress on hierarchical colloidal photonic crystals: the preparation methods, structural properties and applications. By introducing a hierarchy of interconnected structures at different length scales, the surface-to-volume ratio can be dramatically increased and the materials properties tailored accordingly. Moreover, the band-gap features of the photonic crystals may also be adjusted by the structure hierarchy.