Sustainable routes for smart photonic materials
Structural colour arises from constructive interference of light that is reflected at interfaces within periodic arrays of transparent materials. Their optical response is well understood and widely described in various biological organisms. Despite the maturity of the research field, many important questions remain completely unsolved.
In order to elucidate the design principles that underlie the development of such structures in nature, I aim to study the assembly and optical response of both natural and bio-mimetic materials made by using the same materials as nature: cellulose and chitin. Bio-mimetic using natural building blocks will also reveal if disorder, always present in natural structures, is a direct consequence of intrinsic material limitations or if it has a biological significance.
Furthermore, understanding the assembly of natural materials will also allow the production of low cost, biodegradable photonic materials.