Poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) microgel-based etalons constructed from various metal layers

Poly ( N -isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAm) microgel-based etalons are photonic materials that exhibit visual color and characteristic multipeak reflectance spectra. These materials are fabricated by depositing a monolithic layer of pNIPAm-based microgels onto a semitransparent reflective surface, followed by deposition of a subsequent layer of another reflective material. Typically, Au is used as the reflective layers. In an effort to make pNIPAm-based etalons less expensive, we explore the use of other metals as the reflective layers. In this study, we investigate the use of Al, Cu, Ni, and Ti as the reflective surfaces. The results indicate that the optical properties and thermoresponsivity of the etalons are unaffected by the use of other metals to fabricate the etalons.