Structural colour of polyester fabric coated with Ag/TiO2 multilayer films

Silver/titanium dioxide (Ag/TiO2) multilayer films with structural colours on polyester fabric were fabricated using direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering. The bright and variable structural colourations of polyester fabrics coated with an Ag/TiO2 film were investigated with GretagMacbeth Color-Eye 7000A spectrophotometer. The compositions, surface morphologies and microstructure of multilayer films deposited on polyester fabrics were also analysed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results indicated that the structural colours varied with the thickness of TiO2 thin layer in Ag/TiO2 multilayer films. The TiO2 thin layer thicknesses were 42, 65.6, 82, 98.4 and 114.8 nm, and the samples colours became purple, light blue, blue, pink and dark red, respectively. The creation of colours was coincident to film interference principle. XRD analysis revealed that there were four diffraction peaks for Ag/TiO2 multilayer film at 38, 44, 64 and 77 degrees of 2 theta, corresponding to (110), (200), (220) and (311) Ag crystal planes and that TiO2 structure in Ag/TiO2 multilayer film was non-crystalline.