Multicolored Photonic Crystal Carbon Fiber Yarns and Fabrics with Mechanical Robustness for Thermal Management

Multicolored photonic crystal carbon fiber (CF) yarns and fabrics with mechanical robustness in a full spectrum are reported. By facilely controlling the thickness of the periodic layer, a series of photonic CF yarns and fabrics with vivid structural colors ranging from purple, green, yellow, orange, to red are obtained. Interestingly, the prepared multicolored CF yarns show anisotropic optical reflection properties because of their unique axisymmetric geometry, while the plain-woven fabrics exhibit vivid colors even under ambient scattering light. Most importantly, they can withstand cyclical mechanical rubbing, laundering, and accelerated light aging, indicating great potential for practical uses. Finally, considering such impressive characteristics as well as reflection in the visible and near-infrared regions, the above photonic crystal microstructure is further used as a new material for the application of outdoor reflective cooling of the textile surface, demonstrating a superior temperature reduction up to ∼12 °C with respect to the control sample.