Functional polymer-opals from core-shell colloids

Colloidal photonic crystals were prepared from monodisperse core-shell particles. The shell is hereby formed from a functional monomer, such as glycidylmethacrylate or different reactive ester monomers, which can perform chemical reactions and the core from a standard monomer, which yields highly monodisperse colloids. It was possible to crystallize the core-shell particles into artificial opals with excellent optical properties. Reactions on the functional surface of the colloids were carried out, which lead to a dramatic rise in the mechanical stability or to a functionalization of His-tagged silicatein, which acts as nanoreactor to synthesize and immobilize gold nanoparticles from auric acid onto the core-shell colloids.