Construction of Patterned CuO Photonic Crystals on Textile Substrates for Environmental Dyeing with Excellent Antibacterial Properties.

Structural dyeing has attracted much attention due to its advantages such as environmental friendliness, vivid color, and resistance to fading. Herein, we propose an alternative strategy for fabric coloring based on CuO microspheres. The strong Mie scattering effect of CuO microspheres enables the creation of vibrant structural colors on fabric surfaces. These colors are visually striking and can potentially be adjusted by tuning the diameter of the microspheres. Importantly, the CuO spheres were firmly bonded to the fabrics by using the industrial adhesive PDMS, and the CuO structural color fabrics exhibited excellent color fastness to washing, rubbing, and bending. CuO structural color fabrics also demonstrated excellent antimicrobial properties against bacteria such as () and (). The bactericidal rates of CuO structural color textiles after washing for and reached 92.40% and 94.53%, respectively. This innovative approach not only addresses environmental concerns associated with traditional dyeing processes but also enhances fabric properties by introducing vibrant structural colors and antimicrobial functionality.