Modeling Structural Colors from Disordered One-Component Colloidal Nanoparticle-Based Supraballs Using Combined Experimental and Simulation Techniques

Bright, saturated structural colors in birds have inspired synthesis of self-assembled, disordered arrays of colloidal particles with varied particle spacings and refractive indices. However, predicting colors of assembled colloidal particles, and thereby guiding their synthesis, remains challenging due to the effects of multiple scattering and strong absorption. Here, we use a computational approach to first reconstruct colloidal assemblies’ structures from small-angle scattering measurements and then input the reconstructed structures to a finite-difference time-domain method to predict their color and reflectance. This approach is successfully validated by comparing its predictions against experimentally measured reflectance and provides a pathway for design of colloidal assemblies with desired optical and photothermal properties.

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