Visualizing conformations of subchains by creating optical wavelength-sized periodically ordered structure in hydrogel.

Thick single-crystalline fcc colloidal crystals exhibiting structural color are obtained by a solvent evaporation method from silica colloidal particle suspensions. A periodically ordered interconnecting porous structure can be imprinted in thermosensitive N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPA) gels by using the colloidal crystals as templates. The porous structure endows a structural color to the NIPA gels. We find that the peak position of the reflection spectra from the porous gels (lamdamax') is expressed as a function of the swelling degree and is synchronized with the change in the swelling degree. The color can be precisely tuned by simply changing the amount of the monomer and the cross-linker in the pre-gel solutions. We can estimate the linear expansion factor (> or =1) of the subchains by comparing the peak position at a given situation (lamdamax') and the reference state (lamdamax,0'), in which the subchains behave as Gaussian coils. Creating the periodically ordered structure, which is similar in size to the wavelength of optical light, in the gels allows us to determine the behavior of polymer chains by observing the structural color.