Wasilewski Mia R, Lee Ji-Young, Sullivan Patrick A, Deravi Leila F
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Northeastern University Boston MA 02115 USA
RSC Adv. 2025 Jun 18;15(26):20464-20468. doi: 10.1039/d5ra03113c. eCollection 2025 Jun 16.
The emergence of structural coloration in nature requires precise control over material selection, processing, assembly, and distribution to create monodispersed nanostructured arrays. Such control has been historically difficult to replicate and scale for materials applications due to feedstock heterogeneity or complex assembly conditions. We explore the application and processing of an unconventional biomaterial, zein protein, as a template for structural coloration that may overcome these challenges. We leverage the spontaneous assembly of zein as nanoparticles using antisolvent precipitation to create structures with diameters ranging from 180 to 220 nm-a size regime that enables structural color formation. When cast as films, the nanoparticles produce amorphous coatings that display a reflectance peak at 410 nm indicative of violet-blue coloration, highlighting a unique avenue for these biomaterials as structural colorants.
自然界中结构色的出现需要对材料的选择、加工、组装和分布进行精确控制，以创建单分散的纳米结构阵列。由于原料的异质性或复杂的组装条件，这种控制在历史上一直难以复制和扩大规模以用于材料应用。我们探索了一种非常规生物材料——玉米醇溶蛋白作为结构色模板的应用和加工，这种材料可能会克服这些挑战。我们利用反溶剂沉淀法使玉米醇溶蛋白自发组装成纳米颗粒，以创建直径范围为180至220纳米的结构——这一尺寸范围能够形成结构色。当制成薄膜时，这些纳米颗粒会产生非晶涂层，在410纳米处显示出反射峰，表明呈现紫蓝色，突出了这些生物材料作为结构着色剂的独特途径。
