To make ultra-black materials that won’t weigh things down, consider the butterfly

Science Daily  March 10, 2020
Recently, it has been shown that animals such as jumping spiders, birds, and butterflies have evolved ultra-black coloration comparable to the blackest synthetic materials. Researchers at Duke University examined a phylogenetically diverse set of butterflies and found considerable interspecific variation in the geometry of the holes in the structures reduce reflectance up to 16-fold. They produce ultra-black by creating a sparse material with high surface area to increase absorption and minimize surface reflection. They hypothesized that butterflies use ultra-black to increase the contrast of color signals. The findings could help engineers design thinner ultra-black coatings that reduce stray light without weighing things down, for applications ranging from military camouflage, stealth aircraft and lining space telescopes…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE 

Posted in Biomimetics and tagged , .

Leave a Reply