Programming structural color and magnetic anisotropy in polymer composite micrustructure for novel biosystems

In this paper, we introduce a new material called ‘M-ink’, whose reflective color and magnetic anisotropy are tunable by magnetically changing the periodicity of the nanostructure and fixable by photochemically immobilizing those structures in a polymer network. With this material system, we created vivid, free-floating structural colored microparticles with magnetic rotational control for multiplexed bioassays. Also we developed polymeric nanocomposite microactuators undergoing predesigned and complex motions capable of utilizing in various microsystems, by programming heterogeneous magnetic anisotropy. We envision that confining self-assembled nanparticles in polymer provides a new methodology to program advanced properties for the development of functional polymeric microstructure.