High-Performance Photonic Crystal Films for Thermal Management and Wound Healing

Abstract

Photonic crystals (PCs) are ordered structure materials that can reflect visible light at specific wavelengths and infrared. On the basis of this property, PCs can be regarded as a thermal management material with reflection cooling function. Thermal management is of great significance to accelerate wound healing. Thus, from the implementation point of view, it is very desirable to design a high-performance wound dressing based on PCs for wound healing. Here, we propose an easy-to-perform strategy to synthesize colloidal particles with core–shell structure to construct high-performance colloidal photonic crystal (CPCs) films. Benefiting from the structure of hard core and soft shell with low glass transition temperature (Tg), colloidal particles can be assembled tightly and seamlessly. The thermal insulation properties of CPCs films were studied. And the results show that the maximum temperature difference is 5.4 °C compared with the substrate. Finally, we assembled colloidal particles on fibrin gels and explored their advantages in wound healing. We believe that this work not only provides a feasible pathway to prepare cracked-free CPCs films but also paves the way for broadening the application of CPCs in thermal management and wound healing.