You will find the full description of this activity at: https://education.mrsec.wisc.edu/synthesis-of-inverse-opal-photonic-crystals/
Photonic crystals are periodic optical nanostructures that are designed to affect the motion of photons in a similar way that periodicity of a semiconductor crystal affects the motion of electrons.
Photonic crystals occur in nature and in various forms have been studied scientifically for the last 100 years. Inverse Opal Photonic Crystals are three-dimensional structures formed from self-assembly -- essentially a mixture of dielectric nano-spheres to settle from solution into three-dimensionally periodic structures possessing photonic band-gaps. (From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photonic_crystal)
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