Nature’s light manipulation strategies, especially those at the origin of bright iridescent colours, have fascinated humans for centuries. Many arthropods display polarization sensitive iridescent colours for communication and aid its camouflage against predators. This phenomenon is due to the hierarchical Bouligand-type structures that exhibit helical organization and periodic surface structure. Knowledge about the interplay between the morphology, composition and optical appearance of biological photonic systems can provide inspiration for novel artificial photonic devices. Inspired by the beetle of <i>Chalcothea smaragdina</i>, here we demonstrate a scalable route for the manufacture of custom-tailored photonic cellulose paper with hierarchical architectures. We combine the nanoscale self-assembly of cellulose nanocrystal with microscale imprinted surface grating-like structure, exhibiting dual structural colour that derived from the helical matrix and circularly polarized light diffraction. We disentangle the hierarchical cellulose printing in different steps: the microscale surface structure of the patterned template, the drying dynamics of the nanoscale cellulose self-assembly and, finally, the coupled optical properties of bulk films. The resulting photonic cellulose paper is particularly important to understand how hierarchy affects the properties of chiral light-matter interactions in the living organism, not only provides inspiration for designing of bio-mimetic artificial counterparts, but also allows to further understand their biological significance in nature.

More than paper: Cellulose printing for custom-tailored photonics

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.