Photothermal Manipulation of Plasmonic/Polymer Composite Nanoshell Arrays: Enhancing Lattice Order and Tunable Structural Color

Abstract

ABSTRACT Localized surface plasmon resonance of noble metal nanoparticles provides an efficient mechanism for light‐to‐heat conversion, enabling the post‐assembly manipulation of hollow polymer nanoshells in a 2D array. Rapid photothermal heating of gold nanoparticles decorated on the inner surface of nanoshells vaporizes the encapsulated solvent, inducing volumetric expansion and controlled positional adjustment of the nanoshells pre‐assembled on a solid substrate. This process leads to significant improvements in array ordering, along with noticeable enhancements in optical diffraction intensity and a tunable redshift in structural color. The magnitude of this photothermal‐induced expansion can be controlled by manipulating the incident light intensity and the polymer nanoshell parameters, such as diameter and thickness. This photoresponsive system offers a unique and versatile platform for light‐controlled structural color manipulation, including direct laser writing and patterning, opening new opportunities for advanced materials with dynamically tunable optical properties.