Photonic crystals (PCs) are periodic dielectric-structure materials with a photonic bandgap for electromagnetic waves. By combining stimuli-sensitive material with photonic crystals

the formed photonic crystals can respond to the external environments

which are named as responsive photonic crystals. Being a new branch of photonic crystals

responsive photonic crystals have attracted considerable attention as applications in sensors

biomedicine

clinical assay

sensor etc in recent years. According to difference of external environments

responsive photonic crystals can be briefly classified into three different types

chemical responsive photonic crystals

physical responsive photonic crystals and biological responsive photonic crystals. In this article

we mainly review the progress in chemical responsive photonic crystals in recent years

including metal ion-responsive

pH-responsive

redoxresponsive

glucose-responsive and photochemistry-responsive photonic crystals.