Bioinspired composite architectures for responsive 4 dimensional photonics

Project Information

BIO4D

Grant agreement ID: 101077430

DOI

10.3030/101077430

EC signature date 14 March 2023

Start date 1 May 2023

End date 30 April 2028

Funded under

• European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 498 579,00

EU contribution

€ 1 498 579,00

Coordinated by

THE PROVOST, FELLOWS, FOUNDATION SCHOLARS & THE OTHER MEMBERS OF BOARD, OF THE COLLEGE OF THE HOLY & UNDIVIDED TRINITY OF QUEEN ELIZABETH NEAR DUBLIN
Ireland

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BIO4D (Bioinspired composite architectures for responsive 4 dimensional photonics)

Reporting period: 2023-05-01 to 2025-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

BIO4D aims to achieve a fundamental understanding and develop a true biomimetic model of natural responsive
photonic systems. Over millions of years of evolution, nature has enabled organisms to morph their colour, visibility, and reflectivity, to camouflage, signal, mimic, distract, and regulate biological processes. Due to the complexities of these systems, true synthetic analogues have not been achievable to date. BIO4D will develop novel responsive 3D photonic structures by combining self-ordering photonic nanomaterials with state-of-the-art 3D fabrication at the nano and micro-scale. Exploiting bioinspiration to recreate this synthetically would result in the development of dynamic photonic behaviour, for applications such as active encryption technologies, rapid-response chemical and biological sensors, and low-cost gas monitors.

The research addresses four overall objectives:

Objective 1: Investigate self-assembly of photonic nanomaterials in responsive hydrogel networks.
Objective 2: Understand the effect of combining photonic substructures and superstructures.
Objective 3: Fabricate biomimetic 3D photonic structures comprising multiple optical elements.
Objective 4: Demonstrate 4D photonic structures that show on-demand dynamic optical response.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

To date, we have focussed on developing a library of monomers and synthesising a range of self-assembling nanomaterials, which can be used to generate photoresists suitable for microfabrication via Direct Laser Writing. By tailoring nanomaterial properties and dispersion conditions, we can promote self-assembling and dynamically trap it in different states, within soft polymeric matrices. This now enables us to use direct laser writing to form complex 3D structures within self-assembled composites. We can now apply this process to a range of different self-assembled composites which include cellulose nanocrystals, liquid crystal elastomers and hydrogels, and a range of polymeric nanoparticles. This is exciting at a fundamental level, in understanding and disrupting thermodynamically-favoured states of self-assembly but it also has enormous import for understanding and exploiting dynamic and responsive structural colour.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Using our approach, we have now begun to generate microscopic optical arrays, that can respond to light, heat, vapour, or chemical analyte, to instantly camouflage and encrypt, or to sense and diagnose. To fully understand the wide-gamut colour we achieve, we use numerical simulations to inform the design of intrinsically and extrinsically ordered structures, and to help us understand experimentally measured transmission and reflection spectra, and their relative contributions.

BIO4D Graphic for Publication