Alternative moth-eye nanostructures: antireflective properties and composition of dimpled corneal nanocoatings in silk-moth ancestors

Journal of Nanobiotechnology

Short Communication

Jakob Schaab¹  Jannis Lehmann¹  Manfred Fiebig¹  Mikhail Kryuchkov²  Artem Blagodatski³  Vladimir L. Katanaev³  Vsevolod Cherepanov⁴ 

[1] Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 1-5/10, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland;Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 27, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland;Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Lausanne, Rue du Bugnon 27, 1011, Lausanne, Switzerland;School of Biomedicine, Far Eastern Federal University, Sukhanova Street 8, 690922, Vladivostok, Russian Federation;School of Biomedicine, Far Eastern Federal University, Sukhanova Street 8, 690922, Vladivostok, Russian Federation;

关键词: Moth-eye structures;    Antireflective nanocoatings;    Biomimetic materials;    Silkmoth;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12951-017-0297-y

 received in 2017-06-29, accepted in 2017-08-29,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Moth-eye nanostructures are a well-known example of biological antireflective surfaces formed by pseudoregular arrays of nipples and are often used as a template for biomimetic materials. Here, we provide morphological characterization of corneal nanostructures of moths from the Bombycidae family, including strains of domesticated Bombyx mori silk-moth, its wild ancestor Bombyx mandarina, and a more distantly related Apatelodes torrefacta. We find high diversification of the nanostructures and strong antireflective properties they provide. Curiously, the nano-dimple pattern of B. mandarina is found to reduce reflectance as efficiently as the nanopillars of A. torrefacta. Access to genome sequence of Bombyx further permitted us to pinpoint corneal proteins, likely contributing to formation of the antireflective nanocoatings. These findings open the door to bioengineering of nanostructures with novel properties, as well as invite industry to expand traditional moth-eye nanocoatings with the alternative ones described here.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2017

【 图 表 】

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