How Does Nature Create Color?
Lab Coat Ceremony This Week Preceding Seminar
Continuing with our tradition, we will present each Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry major in our Quantitative Analysis course with an embroidered, personalized lab coat. This short ceremony will be live on this Zoom link (https://andrews.zoom.us/j/92307867479) and will start at 4:25 p.m. (EDT) to be immediately followed by the seminar presentation from Professor Silvia Vignolini. Congratulations to this year’s quant students. We are proud of you!
The faculty, students and staff of Andrews University Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry are pleased to invite all to view Professor Silvia Vignolini's online Zoom lecture on Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020, on the topic "How Does Nature Create Color?" (Biomimetic Colour Engineering form Nature to Applications). See the attached poster.
This is the fourth installment of the Dwain L Ford Lecture Series in the Andrews University Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry 2020 fall seminar program. Everyone is invited to view the lecture at https://andrews.zoom.us/j/92307867479. The meeting ID is 923 0786 7479.
Teachers are encouraged to announce this lecture in their classes and/or forward this email to their classes. Please share and encourage your colleagues, friends and others to tune in online. This lecture is open to all: students, high school through college, and everyone in the general public.
The Dwain L Ford Lecture Series is co-sponsored by the Andrews University Office of Research & Creative Scholarship, Berrien RESA Math Science Center and the Chemistry Honors Society.
Seminar Zoom Protocol:
- Mute your sound.
- Everyone can ask/write a question in the chat.
Abstract:
The most brilliant colours in nature are obtained by structuring transparent materials on the scale of the wavelength of visible light. By designing the dimensions of such nanostructures, it is possible to achieve extremely intense colourations over the entire visible spectrum without using pigments or colorants. Colour obtained through structure, namely structural colour, is widespread in the animal and plant kingdom [1]. Such natural photonic nanostructures are generally synthesised in ambient conditions using a limited range of biopolymers. Given these limitations, an amazing range of optical structures exists: from very ordered photonic structures [2], to partially disordered [3], to completely random ones [4].
In this seminar, I will introduce some striking examples of natural photonic structures [2–4] and share some insight on their development. Then I will review our recent advances to fabricate bio-mimetic photonic structures using the same material as nature. Developing biomimetic structures with cellulose enables us to fabricate novel photonic materials using low cost polymers in ambient conditions [6–7]. Importantly, it also allows us to understand the biological processes at work during the growth of these structures in plants.
[1] Kinoshita, S. et al. (2008). Physics of structural colors. Rep. Prog. Phys. 71(7), 076401.
[2] Vignolini, S. et al. (2012). Pointillist structural color in Pollia fruit. PNAS 109, 15712-15716.
[3] Moyroud, E. et al. (2017). Disorder in convergent floral nanostructures enhances signalling to bees. Nature 550, 469.
[4] Burresi M. et al. (2014). Bright-White Beetle Scales Optimise Multiple Scattering of Light. Sci. Rep. 4, 727.
[5] Parker R. et al. (2018). The Self-Assembly of Cellulose Nanocrystals: Hierarchical Design of Visual Appearance. Adv Mat 30, 1704477.
[6] Parker R. et al. (2016). Hierarchical Self-Assembly of Cellulose Nanocrystals in a Confined Geometry. ACS Nano, 10 (9), 8443–8449.
[7] Liang H-L. et al. (2018). Roll-to-roll fabrication of touch-responsive cellulose photonic laminates, Nat Com 9, 4632.
Speaker’s Bio:
Silvia Vignolini studied physics at the University of Florence, Italy. In 2009, she was awarded a PhD in solid state physics at the European Laboratory for non-Linear Spectroscopy and the Physics Department at the University of Florence. In 2010, she moved to Cambridge as a post-doctoral research associate working in the Cavendish Laboratory and the Plant Science Department. In 2013, she started her independent research becoming a BBSRC David Philip Fellow. Dr. Vignolini is currently a professor at the University of Cambridge in sustainability and bio-inspired materials. Her research interest lies at the interface of chemistry, soft-matter physics, optics, and biology. In particular, her research focuses on the study of how natural materials (like cellulose) are assembled into complex architectures within living organisms and how such materials can be exploited to fabricate a novel class of photonic pigments.
PR
pr@andrews.edu
