A Robust Fabrication Technique for Hydrogel Films Containing Micropatterned Opal Structures via Micromolding and an Integrated Evaporative Deposition-Photopolymerization Approach

Opal-structured thin-film hydrogel materials with micropatterns hold great potential for utility in a wide range of sensing applications. Micropatterning offers key advantages such as ready addressability, high throughput assay, and multiplexing. However, controlled fabrication of such films in a rapid, inexpensive, and reliable manner remains a challenge. Existing techniques suffer from long opal deposition times and often involve complex and arduous steps. In this report, we examined a simple micromolding-based evaporation-polymerization method for the fabrication of poly(ethylene glycol)-based hydrogel films containing micropatterned opal structures. Specifically, intense and uniform opalescent colors were achieved by evaporative deposition of polystyrene bead solution in patterned micromolds. These opal micropatterns were then captured in hydrogel films by simple photopolymerization of a UV-curable PEG diacrylate solution. The as-prepared films show high tunability as well as responsiveness to various environmental cues readily manifested via shifts in color. Combined with UV-vis reflectance spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy results, these findings illustrate the robust, simple, and reliable nature of our integrated deposition-polymerization approach for controlled fabrication of optically active and stimuli-responsive functional materials. We thus envision that the results and the facile approach reported here can be extended to many application areas including environmental monitoring, diagnostics, and biosensing applications.