Bioinspired ultraviolet reflective photonic structures derived from butterfly wings (Euploea)

Butterfly wings have been demonstrated to have potential applications in various optical devices. For complementarily, we extend them to ultraviolet (UV) reflectors, inspired by the UV reflective photonic structures that have been evolved to satisfy UV communication systems of butterflies. UV reflective photonic structures of butterfly wings were replicated in multiscale, and thus endowed the resultant SnO2 materials with enhanced UV reflection. This biomimetic strategy provides us a universal way towards UV reflectors without changing the chemical compositions. Furthermore, the UV reflection could be potentially tuned by choosing different photonic structures of butterfly wings and other bio-species.

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