Dually responsive one dimensional photonic crystals with reversible color changes

A smart and reproducible fabrication of pH/temperature dually responsive sensor by taking advantage of 1DPCs. •A simple ordered TiO2/P(AA-bis-NiPAAm) 1DPCs with pH/temperature response was fabricated by spin-coating method.•The pH/temperature response can be simply obtained according to the structural color change with naked eyes and the response is reversible.•Both refraction wavelength and peak refraction intensity values can be employed as the characteristic signal of response process. We developed a smart and reproducible fabrication of pH/temperature dually responsive sensor by taking advantage of 1DPCs. 1DPCs were fabricated by spin-coating TiO2 and copolymers P(AA-bis-NiPAAm) onto silicon wafers. When using the 1DPCs dually responsive polymer films as pH/temperature sensor, both refraction wavelength and peak refraction intensity values were derived, and the reproducible change could be observed by the naked eye through a change in color.