tion required the removal of water and another swelling of the stabilized arrays in MOEA. The incorporation of a small quantity of ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (ca. 1 v/v) and photoinitiator (DEAP) into the swollen system, with subsequent photopolymerization, resulted in a water-free and robust composite. These PMOEA-based composites were the starting materials for an additional round of encapsulation using a variety of monomers. A composite film was immersed into a solution consisting of a monomer (see Table 1) and the photoinitiator DEAP, in a volume ratio of 10:1, for ca. 24 h. A Hewlett Packard Deskjet 960c commercial printer was used to print positive and negative templates on overhead transparencies. These were placed on the top glass surface of a Kepro UV Exposure Frame model BTX-200A. The swollen photonic bandgap composites were then placed on top of the template and illuminated from below. All chemicals were purchased from either Aldrich or Acros Organics.
Characterization: The reflectance spectra of the films were collected on an Ocean Optics PC-2000 fiber-optic spectrometer with incident light normal to the film surface. Spectra were collected between the wavelengths of 300 and 900 nm. Optical images were collected on a Zeiss Axioplan 2 microscope coupled to an AxioCam MRc or a Sony DSC-F828 CyberShot digital camera. A Metricon 2010 prism coupler operating at 632.8 nm was used to measure the refractive index of the free-standing composite films.
A differential scanning calorimeter (TA Instruments DSC 2920) equipped with liquid-nitrogen cooling accessories was used to quantify T g. . The carrier gas was nitrogen, flowing at a rate of ca. 60 mL min ±1 . Scans were made from ±100 C to 250 C at a scan rate of 20 C min ±1 . All data were taken at a temperature of 23 C unless otherwise stated.