Structural Diversity of Arthropod Biophotonic Nanostructures Spans Amphiphilic Phase-Space.
Many organisms, especially arthropods, produce vivid interference colors using diverse mesoscopic (100-350 nm) integumentary biophotonic nanostructures that are increasingly being investigated for technological applications. Despite a century of interest, precise structural knowledge of many biophotonic nanostructures and the mechanisms controlling their development remain tentative, when such knowledge can open novel biomimetic routes to facilely self-assemble tunable, multifunctional materials. Here, we use synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering and electron microscopy to characterize the photonic nanostructure of 140 integumentary scales and setae from ∼127 species of terrestrial arthropods in 85 genera from 5 orders. We report a rich nanostructural diversity, including triply periodic bicontinuous networks, close-packed spheres, inverse columnar, perforated lamellar, and disordered spongelike morphologies, commonly observed as stable phases of amphiphilic surfactants, block copolymer, and lyotropic lipid-water systems. Diverse arthropod lineages appear to have independently evolved to utilize the self-assembly of infolding lipid-bilayer membranes to develop biophotonic nanostructures that span the phase-space of amphiphilic morphologies, but at optical length scales.
†Division of Physics and Applied Physics, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 21 Nanyang Link, 637371, Singapore.|‡Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PS, United Kingdom.
Vinodkumar
V
Saranathan
§CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences, GPO Box 1700, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia.
Ainsley E
AE
Seago
∥Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, United States.
Alec
A
Sandy
∥Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439, United States.
Suresh
S
Narayanan
Simon G J
SG
Mochrie
Eric R
ER
Dufresne
Hui
H
Cao
Chinedum O
CO
Osuji
Richard O
RO
Prum
D000818:Animals; D001181:Arthropods / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D010858:Pigmentation
Biophotonic nanostructures; biomimetics; iridescence; membrane-folding; self-assembly; structural colors