Fabrication of crack-free non-iridescent structural color coatings with good stability on calcium silicate board

Abstract The angle dependence, easy cracking and weak mechanical properties of structural color coatings from colloidal crystals bring great challenges to their practical application. In this work, crack-free structural color coatings with non-iridescence were prepared on the surface of calcium silicate board (CSB) for the first time by co-assembling polydopamine-wrapped polystyrene nanoparticles (PS@PDA NPs) and polyacrylate (PA). The effect of dopamine hydrochloride amount on the saturation of the structural color of PS@PDA was discussed, and there were cracks in the surface of the coatings. The addition of PA greatly inhibited the formation of cracks during PS@PDA assembly and had almost no effect on the saturation of the structural colors. In addition, after the surface had been brushed with waterborne wood paint, the coatings had good chemical and mechanical stability, and the non-iridescence of the structural color coatings was not affected. This research would provide a new reference to fabricate bright non-iridescent structural color coatings with good mechanical features on man-made boards, which could promote the potential applications of structural colors in decorative field and other fields.