skip to content

Professor of Chemistry and Bio-materials

Photonic structures in Nature and Bio-mimetic Materials

Research Interests

Photonic structures in nature

Colour in nature is everywhere: animals and plants develop structures on sub-micrometer scale to manipulate light and to obtain brilliant and iridescent colours. This kind of colouration, named structural since it is not obtained using pigmentation, results from various mechanisms, including multilayered materials, crystalline inclusions and surface diffraction gratings. Pollia condensata fruits are one of the most striking examples of  strong iridescent colouration in plants. The colour is caused by Bragg-reflection of helicoidally stacked cellulose microfibrils, which form multilayers in the cell walls of the epicarp. The bright blue colour of this fruit is more intense than that of many previously described biological materials. Uniquely in nature, the reflected colour differs from cell to cell, as the layer thicknesses in the multilayer stack vary, giving the fruit a striking pixelated or ’pointillist’ appearance.

PNAS 109, 15712–15715, (2012)

 

Another striking example is the white of the Cyphochilus beetle which is native to South-East Asia, is whiter than paper, thanks to ultra-thin scales which cover its body. A new investigation of the optical properties of these scales has shown that they are able to scatter light more efficiently than any other biological tissue known, which is how they are able to achieve such a bright whiteness.

Scientific Reports 4, 6075 doi:10.1038/srep06075 (2014)

Funding

  1. BBSRC David Phillips fellowship
  2. Next Generation fellowship
  3. Isaac Newton Trust

Watch Professor Vignolini discuss her research

Take a tour of the Vignolini lab

Selected Publications

[1] Pointillist structural colour in Pollia fruit

S. Vignolini, P. J. Rudall, A. V. Rowland, A. Reed, E. Moyroud, R. B. Faden, J. J. Baumberg, B. J. Glover, U. Steiner; PNAS 109, 15712–15715, (2012). 

[2] Controlled bio-inspired self-assembly of cellulose-based chiral reflectors 

A. G. Dumanli, G. Kamita, J. Landman, H. van der Kooij, B. J. Glover, J. J. Baumberg, U Steiner, S. Vignolini;  Adv. Opt. Mat. DOI: 10.1002/adom.201400112  (2014)
 

[3]Bright-White Beetle scales Optimise Multiple Scattering of Light

M. Burresi, L. Cortese, L. Pattelli, M. Kolle, P.Vukusic, D. Wiersma, U. Steiner, and S.Vignolini; Scientific Reports 4, 6075 doi:10.1038/srep06075 (2014)

 

Publications

Cellulose-based Scattering Enhancers for Light Management Applications
H Yang, G Jacucci, L Schertel, S Vignolini
– ACS nano
(2022)
16,
7373
The Limited Palette for Photonic Block-Copolymer Materials: A Historical Problem or a Practical Limitation?
Z Wang, C Chan, R Parker, S Vignolini
– Angewandte Chemie International Edition
(2022)
61,
e202117275
The Limited Palette for Photonic Block‐Copolymer Materials: A Historical Problem or a Practical Limitation?
Z Wang, CLC Chan, RM Parker, S Vignolini
– Angewandte Chemie
(2022)
134,
3D-printed hierarchical pillar array electrodes for high-performance semi-artificial photosynthesis
X Chen, JM Lawrence, LT Wey, L Schertel, Q Jing, S Vignolini, CJ Howe, S Kar-Narayan, JZ Zhang
– Nature Materials
(2022)
21,
811
Current international research into cellulose as a functional nanomaterial for advanced applications
SJ Eichhorn, A Etale, J Wang, LA Berglund, Y Li, Y Cai, C Chen, ED Cranston, MA Johns, Z Fang, G Li, L Hu, M Khandelwal, KY Lee, K Oksman, S Pinitsoontorn, F Quero, A Sebastian, MM Titirici, Z Xu, S Vignolini, B Frka-Petesic
– Journal of Materials Science
(2022)
57,
5697
Fast Self-Assembly of Scalable Photonic Cellulose Nanocrystals and Hybrid Films via Electrophoresis.
S Atifi, M-N Mirvakili, CA Williams, MM Bay, S Vignolini, WY Hamad
– Adv Mater
(2022)
34,
e2109170
Highly-scattering cellulose-based  lms for radiative cooling
J Jaramillo-Fernandez, H Yang, L Schertel, GL Whitworth, PD Garcia, S Vignolini, CM Sotomayor-Torres
– Adv Sci (Weinh)
(2022)
9,
e2104758
3D Printing of Liquid Crystalline Hydroxypropyl Cellulose – Toward Tunable and Sustainable Volumetric Photonic Structures
CLC Chan, IM Lei, GT van de Kerkhof, RM Parker, KD Richards, RC Evans, YYS Huang, S Vignolini
– Advanced Functional Materials
(2022)
32,
2108566
Recent Progress in Production Methods for Cellulose Nanocrystals: Leading to More Sustainable Processes
Y Tang, H Yang, S Vignolini
– Advanced Sustainable Systems
(2022)
6,
2100100
Modeling the Cholesteric Pitch of Apolar Cellulose Nanocrystal Suspensions Using a Chiral Hard-Bundle Model
M Chiappini, S Dussi, B Frka-Petesic, S Vignolini, M Dijkstra
– Journal of Chemical Physics
(2022)
156,
014904
  • <
  • 3 of 18
  • >