Electrically tunable polypyrrole inverse opals with switchable stopband, conductivity, and wettability

The Ppy (polypyrrole) inverse opal with switchable stopband, conductivity, and wettability was successfully fabricated using high-quality PC (photonic crystals) template made from latex spheres with hydrophobic PS core and hydrophilic polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA-PAA) shell. the PC templates were prepared through vertical deposition from the core, shell latex suspension of poly(St-MMA-AA) with a diameter of ca. 440 nm. The images showed that the latex particles were face-centered cubic close-packed, with the surface parallel to the ITO substrate. The stopband of the material showed reversible conversion between the oxidation and the neutral state. Both the conductivity and the wettability of the Ppy inverse opal could be transitioned with the color change. The conductivity was relatively high at the oxidation state, and the value was decreased by 4-5 times at the neutral state.