Butterfly Wings Created at the Nanoscale

An international team of researchers, comprising scientists from the State University of Pennsylvania, in the US, and the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM), in Spain, has recently been able to replicate biological structures at the nanoscale. It has been, for instance, capable of recreating the wing of a butterfly from biological material. The innovation has considerable application potential in constructing optically active structures such as optical diffusers for solar panels.

“This technique was developed at the Materials Research Institute of the State University of Pennsylvania and it enables replicas of biological structures to be made on a nanometric scale,” UAM Department of Applied Physics lecturer Raul J. Martín-Palma, who is also the co-author of a new study detailing the finds, tells SINC. The team presents its discoveries in the latest issue of the respected scientific journal Bioinspiration & Biomimetics.

The investigators turned to nature for inspiration, and followed the design of nanostructures in insects' wings for their innovation. Iridescence is a well-known phenomenon in the flying critters, which manifests itself by the creatures appearing to change colors, when looked at from different angles. Responsible for this ability are nanoscale photonic structures, the team reports. According to the paper, the results of the study were “free-standing replicas of fragile, laminar, chitinous biotemplates.” A Germanium-Selenium-Stibium (GeSeSb) compound was used as the basis for the new biomaterials.

“The development of miniature cameras and optical sensors based on these organs would make it possible for them to be installed in small spaces in cars, mobile telephones and displays, apart from having uses in areas such as medicine (the development of endoscopes) and security (surveillance),” Martín-Palma says. “Furthermore, the technique can be used to replicate other biological structures, such as beetle shells or the compound eyes of flies, bees and wasps,” the scientists add in their paper. In solar cells, the structures would be used to enhance the light-absorption potential of the devices and increase the electricity production.