Single Diamond Structured Titania Scaffold

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel bottom-up method to synthesize single diamond (SD) photonic structures inspired by natural skeletons, achieving a wide complete bandgap for advanced optical applications.

Contribution

It presents an innovative self-assembly process mimicking natural co-folding to fabricate stable SD networks with potential for photonic devices.

Findings

Successfully synthesized tetrahedral SD frameworks

Demonstrated wide and complete photonic bandgap

Provides new design strategies for complex photonic materials

Abstract

The single diamond (SD) network, discovered in beetle and weevil skeletons, is the 'holy grail' of photonic materials with the widest complete bandgap known to date. However, the thermodynamic instability of SD has made its self-assembly long been a formidable challenge. By imitating the simultaneous co-folding process of nonequilibrium skeleton formation in natural organisms, we devised an unprecedented bottom-up approach to fabricate SD networks via the synergistic self-assembly of diblock copolymer and inorganic precursors and successfully obtained tetrahedral connected polycrystalline anatase SD frameworks. A photonic bandstructure calculation showed that the resulting SD structure has a wide and complete photonic bandgap. This work provides an ingenious design solution to the complex synthetic puzzle and offers new opportunities for biorelevant materials, next-generation optical devices, etc.