Color morphing surfaces with effective chemical shielding

Color morphing refers to color change in response to an environmental stimulus. Photochromic materials allow color morphing in response to light, but almost all photochromic materials suffer from degradation when exposed to moist/humid environments or harsh chemical environments. One way of overcoming this challenge is by imparting chemical shielding to the color morphing materials via superomniphobicity. However, simultaneously imparting color morphing and superomniphobicity, both surface properties, requires a rational design. In this work, we systematically design color morphing surfaces with superomniphobicity through an appropriate combination of a photochromic dye, a low surface energy material, and a polymer in a suitable solvent (for one-pot synthesis), applied through spray coating (for the desired texture). We also investigate the influence of polymer polarity and material composition on color morphing kinetics and superomniphobicity. Our color morphing surfaces with effective chemical shielding can be designed with a wide variety of photochromic and thermochromic pigments and applied on a wide variety of substrates. We envision that such surfaces will have a wide range of applications including camouflage soldier fabrics/apparel for chem-bio warfare, color morphing soft robots, rewritable color patterns, optical data storage, and ophthalmic sun screening. Photochromic materials suffer from degradation when exposed to harsh chemical environments, but this can be overcome by providing chemical shielding via superomniphobicity. Here, the authors show the design rationale and careful materials selection for fabrication of color morphing surfaces that can simultaneously display excellent chemical resistance.