Structurally-colored articles and methods for making and using structurally-colored articles

1. A method, comprising:

disposing a primer layer having a percent transmittance of about 40 percent or less; and

disposing an optical element on a top surface of the primer layer, wherein the primer layer, and the optical element impart a structural color having at least one hue, wherein the optical element is a multilayer reflector or a multilayer filter, wherein the optical element has at least two layers, including at least two adjacent layers having different refractive indices.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the primer layer further comprises a textured surface, and the textured surface of the primer layer, the primer layer, and the optical element impart the structural color.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the primer layer is on a top surface of a substrate of an article.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the top surface of a substrate is a textured surface of an article, wherein the primer layer is on the textured surface, and the textured surface of the substrate, the primer layer, and the optical element impart the structural color.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein disposing the primer layer comprising disposing the primer layer using: digital printing, offset printing, pad printing, screen printing, flexographic printing, or heat transfer printing.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the primer layer is a metal oxide or metal oxynitride, wherein the metal oxide or the metal oxynitride is doped.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the primer layer is a coating, wherein the coating is a crosslinked coating including a matrix of crosslinked polymers.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the matrix of crosslinked polymers include polyurethane polymers.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the polyurethane polymers include polyester polyurethane copolymers.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein the primer layer comprises a plurality of solid pigment particles entrapped in the matrix of crosslinked polymers.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the optical element is substantially free of pigments, dyes, and a combination thereof.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the imparted structural color is iridescent.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the optical element, as disposed onto an article, when measured according to the CIE 1976 color space under a given illumination condition at three observation angles between −15 degrees and +60 degrees, has a first color measurement at a first angle of observation having coordinates L 1 * and a 1 * and b 1 *, and a second color measurement at a second angle of observation having coordinates L 2 * and a 2 * and b 2 *, and a third color measurement at a third angle of observation having coordinates L 3 * and a 3 * and b 3 *, wherein the L 1 *, L 2 *, and L 3 * values may be the same or different, wherein the a 1 *, a 2 *, and a 3 * coordinate values may be the same or different, wherein the b 1 *, b 2 *, and b 3 * coordinate values may be the same or different, and wherein the range of the combined a 1 *, a 2 * and a 3 * values is less than about 40% of the overall scale of possible a* values.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the primer layer is a coating, wherein the coating is a product of crosslinking a polymeric coating composition.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the polymeric coating composition comprises a dispersion of polymers.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the dispersion of polymers is a water-borne dispersion of polymers.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the polymeric coating composition further comprises a plurality of solid pigment particles mixed with the dispersion of polymers.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein, the solid pigment particles are selected from the group consisting of: metal and metal oxide pigments, carbon pigments, clay earth pigments, ultramarine pigments and a combination thereof.

19. The method of claim 14 , wherein the polymeric coating composition further comprises a solubilized dye.

20. The method of claim 14 , wherein the coating further comprises a quaternary ammonium compound.

21. The method of claim 1 , wherein the optical element is the multilayer reflector, wherein at least one of the layers of the multilayer reflector has a thickness that is about one-fourth of the wavelength of visible light to be reflected by the optical layer structure to impart the structural color.

22. The method of claim 1 , wherein the optical element is the multilayer filter, wherein the multilayer filter destructively interferes with light that impinges upon the article so that a single wavelength of light, or a particular range of wavelengths of light, make up the structural color.

23. The method of claim 1 , wherein the structural color has at least one hue selected from cyan, indigo, violet, blue, blue-green, and purple green.

24. The method of claim 1 , wherein the structural color is limited to one, two or three hues selected from a hue group, wherein the hue group is selected from the group consisting of cyan, indigo, violet, blue, blue-green, or purple green.

25. The method of claim 1 , wherein the structural color has at least one hue selected from cyan, indigo, violet, blue, blue-green, and purple green.

26. The method of claim 1 , wherein the structural color produced by optical element is a single-hued color.

27. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one hue is associated with a wavelength range in the visible spectrum, wherein the wavelength range is selected from: the range of about 520 to 490 nanometers, the range of about 490 nanometers to 450 nanometers, the range of about 450 to 400 nanometers, or a combination thereof.

28. The method of claim 1 , wherein a first layer of the optical element comprises titanium dioxide, wherein a second layer of the optical element comprises silicon dioxide, and wherein the first layer and the second layer are adjacent one another.

29. The method of claim 1 , wherein the optical element has from 2 to 10 layers.