Architectural Engineering of Bio-inspired Structural color Fibers: From Microscopic Assembly to Macroscopic Fiber Integration

Bio-inspired structural color fibers (SCFs) with the combinations of the photonic effect of natural structure color and the configurational freedom of fiber materials, are a new type of fiber materials with dye/pigment-free optical property and newly-emerged functions, showcasing broad application prospects in smart textile, flexible optical display, and visual sensing. The key point for SCF fabrication is developing nano/micro-scaled structure into macro-scale one-dimensional (1D) configuration, while the high aspect ratio and curved surface of 1D configuration are prone to make the structure disordered. In this regard, considerable efforts have been made to overcome the issues. In this review, we give a fundamental and insightful study on the correlations between 1D photonic structure engineering and eventual SCF fabrication, started with introducing natural structure color principles. Next, we deeply study the fabrication techniques available for upscaling nano/micro photonic structure into macro 1D configuration. Finally, insights into the future challenges in the field of SCF materials, regarding the micro-scale photonic assembly balanced with the macro-scaled continuous fiber forming and the translation of structure color fibers technology from academia to industry, are proposed.