Self-coloring polymeric materials without coating/painting

Structural coloration is achieved without the need of addition color pigments on the material. It can be achieved through the diffraction of light provided the surface of the material has submicron wavelength of the visible white light. The purpose of this experiment is to obtained submicron wavelength for visible structural coloration after treatment without coating any layer of thin film atop polymer. Using an opaque Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) (machine grade) polymer as the sample in this study, the samples were heated above the glass transition (Tg) for pre-stretching before surface etching with two different methods. The etched ABS sample were re-heated for shape recovery purpose to obtain the targeted submicron wavelength of 0.5-1 m. The 3D surface topographies of ABS samples were analyzed using PL Confocal Imaging Profiler. The striped shaped wrinkles pattern atop the ABS sample has shortest wavelength of about 40 m. Using an appropriate surface etching method serves simple, and low cost alternative to create stripe-shaped wrinkles. The effect of possible parameters include material selection, solvent selection, surface etching methods on the wavelength of the striped-shaped wrinkle patterns can be further studied to obtain the formation of submicron wavelength for visible structural coloration under white light.Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering