Revealing the Structural Coloration of Self-Assembled Chitin Nanocrystal Films.
Authors
Publication Date
2022-08Journal Title
Adv Mater
ISSN
0935-9648
Publisher
Wiley
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
AO
VoR
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Narkevicius, A., Parker, R., Ferrer-Orri, J., Parton, T., Lu, Z., van de Kerkhof, G., Frka-Petesic, B., & et al. (2022). Revealing the Structural Coloration of Self-Assembled Chitin Nanocrystal Films.. Adv Mater https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202203300
Description
Funder: Lord Lewis Research Studentship in Chemistry
Abstract
The structural coloration of arthropods often arises from helicoidal structures made primarily of chitin. Although it is possible to achieve analogous helicoidal architectures by exploiting the self-assembly of chitin nanocrystals (ChNCs), to date no evidence of structural coloration has been reported from such structures. Previous studies are identified to have been constrained by both the experimental inability to access sub-micrometer helicoidal pitches and the intrinsically low birefringence of crystalline chitin. To expand the range of accessible pitches, here, ChNCs are isolated from two phylogenetically distinct sources of α-chitin, namely fungi and shrimp, while to increase the birefringence, an in situ alkaline treatment is performed, increasing the intensity of the reflected color by nearly two orders of magnitude. By combining this treatment with precise control over ChNC suspension formulation, structurally colored chitin-based films are demonstrated with reflection tunable from blue to near infrared.
Keywords
Research Article, Research Articles, chitin, liquid crystals, nanocrystals, self‐assembly, structural color
Sponsorship
This work was supported by:
European Research Council [ERC-2017-POC 790518],
BBSRC [BB/K014617/1, BB/V00364X/1],
EPSRC [EP/N509620/1, EP/L015978/1],
Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement [No. 722842],
Lord Lewis Research Studentship in Chemistry, Erasmus + traineeship (NLMAASTRI01).
Funder references
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/K014617/1)
EPSRC (1948659)
European Research Council (790518)
BBSRC (BB/V00364X/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (1800758)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (1948659)
European Commission Horizon 2020 (H2020) Marie Sk?odowska-Curie actions (722842)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/L015978/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/N509620/1)
Identifiers
adma202203300
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202203300
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/338606
Rights
Licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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