2012 - Europe Direct Iasi

EUROINVENT 2012
samples obtained were analyzed with a scanning electron
microscope (SEM). The diameters of the fibers were measured in
order to determine the optimum electrospinning parameters.
X. 13.
Title
Achieving Biomimetic Structural Color for Textiles – „Dyeing
without colorants”
Authors Mirela Teodorescu
Institution „Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iasi
Description
For thousands of years colors of textiles and clothes have been
obtained from pigments. Until some decades ago, people did not
realize that Nature also „dresses” herself into amazing structural
colours. Most of these colours are based on simple optical
phenomena: thin film interference, multilayer reflectors,
diffraction gratings, photonic crystals, light scattering.
Although structural colours have been reported in a diverse range
of species, including birds, fish, molluscs, annelids and
arthropods, however, butterflies displays among the most diverse
reflecting surfaces, probably because they have scales
supporting, even at submicron level, very complex architectures.
The bright colours and reflective properties of butterfly wings
can offer great innovations for textiles and clothes. The tropical
Morpho butterfly displays a brilliant blue due to multilayer
interference from vary small structures on wing scales. Light
interacts with these structures leading to a high intensity
reflection spectrum which varies strongly with the angle of
incidence and the angle of observation.
The study focuses on understanding the physical phenomena
behind the structural colour and the development of theoretical
and practical models that imitates butterfly’s scale
nanoarchitectures. The industrial potential of these structures for
use in textile applications is demonstrated by varying different
parameters, leading to a wide colour palette.
The novel range of nanomaterials with biomimetic structural
colour can offer an eco footprint for textile industry, replacing
the photodegradable and toxic dyes.
Innovative Researches
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