Abstract
Plant tissues include leaves, flower petals, and fruits. These can provide us with variety of design inspirations. Biomimetics allows us to learn from nature and transfer the knowledge we gain from studying sophisticated and amazing biological structures, materials and processes to engineering and the arts. The microstructures of morphology and anatomy of plant tissue have potential applications in technology through bioinspired design, which can mimic the properties found in nature or use them as inspiration for alternative applications. Many applications have been developed as a result of studying physical properties of plant tissues. Structural colours, for example, have been applied in the design of thin films both with regard to single or multilayer thin film interference, scattering, and diffraction gratings. Iridescent, metallic, or greyish colouration found naturally in plants is the result of physical structures or physical effects and not pigmentation. Phenotypical appearance of plants with structural colouration in tropical Malaysia is correlated with environmental parameters such as location (shady understory rainforest, sunny conditions) and altitude (highlands, lowlands). Various examples of bioinspired technical innovations with structural colours highlight the importance of inspiration by structural colours in living nature.
Highlights
Many applications have been developed as a result of studying physical properties of plant tissues
A number of engineering devices and applications have been developed based on the mechanisms of structural colour production that are observed in nature
The physical phenomena involved in producing structural colour in nature and engineering are identified as follows: thin-film interference, multilayer thin film, diffraction gratings, and scattering
Summary
The nanostructures employed to achieve this colouration serve various functions in plants; for example, they make them even more attractive, deter herbivores, and help in light management (e.g., UV protection or focusing of light on the chloroplasts). A number of engineering devices and applications have been developed based on the mechanisms of structural colour production that are observed in nature. Examples of these include thin-film multilayers and photonic crystals, which are both formed in nanoscale structures. Understanding nanostructures for colouration in plants and their correlation with the respective function can yield increased appreciation of the structure-function relationship in such functional nanostructures and could potentially inspire nanoscientists and nanotechnologists to develop more integrated, multifunctional applications that are both biodegradable and benign.
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