Abstract
Inspired by cicada wings, a flexible film with self-cleaning and broadband antireflection properties was fabricated with a rapid, straightforward and cost-effective method. The cicada wing was selected as the original template, and a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) negative replica was obtained by evaporation solvent process. The original template was directly peeled off. Subsequently, the polydi-methylsiloxane (PDMS) was spread in the as-prepared PMMA negative replica. After curing and peeling processes, the PDMS positive replica was manufactured successfully. The morphologies and performances of cicada wings were perfectly inherited by the PDMS positive replica. What is more, the excellent optical property of cicada wing was investigated experimentally and theoretically. Compared with flat PDMS film, the average reflectivity of structural PDMS film was reduced from 9% to 3.5% in the wavelength range of 500 nm–900 nm. These excellent antireflection properties of bio-inspired antireflection film can be attributed to the nanostructures which achieve a gradient refractive index between air and the materials, and the mechanism of the antireflection properties was revealed via effective medium theory. Besides, the bio-inspired broadband antireflective film exhibited superhydrophobic property after the surface treatment (a 152.1°water contact angle), and it also displayed satisfactory flexibility. This work provided a universal method to fabricate the exquisite biological structures, realizing the transfer of structure and function. Moreover, the multifunctional antireflection film exhibited the potential value for applications in optical communications, flexible display screens, and anti-dazzle glasses.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Brongersma M L, Cui Y, Fan S. Light management for photovoltaics using high-index nanostructures. Nature Materials, 2014, 13, 451–460.
Wang W, Zhang J, Che X Z, Qin G G. Large absorption enhancement in ultrathin solar cells patterned by metallic nanocavity arrays. Scientific Reports, 2016, 6, 34219.
Zhou H, Xu J, Liu X H, Zhang H W, Wang D T, Chen Z H, Zhang D, Fan T X. Bio-inspired photonic materials: Prototypes and structural effect designs for applications in solar energy manipulation. Advanced Functional Materials, 2017, 28, 1705309.
Mahadik D B, Lakshmi R V, Barshilia H C. High performance single layer nano-porous antireflection coatings on glass by sol-gel process for solar energy applications. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 2015, 140, 61–68.
Lampande R, Kim G W, Park M J, Kang B Y, Kwon J H. Efficient light harvesting in inverted polymer solar cells using polymeric 2D-microstructures. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 2016, 151, 162–168.
Shao T, Tang F, Sun L X, Ye X, He J H, Yang L M, Zheng W G. Fabrication of antireflective nanostructures on a transmission grating surface using a one-step self-masking method. Nanomaterials, 2019, 9, 180.
Lotz M R, Petersen C R, Markos C, Bang O, Jakobsen M H, Taboryski R. Direct nanoimprinting of moth-eye structures in chalcogenide glass for broadband antireflection in the mid-infrared. Optica, 2018, 5, 557–563.
Saylan S, Milakovich T, Hadi S A, Nayfeh A, Fitzgerald E A, Dahlem M S. Multilayer antireflection coating design for GaAs0.69P0.31/Si dual-junction solar cells. Solar Energy, 2015, 122, 76–86.
Brunner R, Sandfuchs O, Pacholski C, Morhard C, Spatz J. Lessons from nature: Biomimetic subwavelength structures for high-performance optics. Laser and Photonics Reviews, 2012, 6, 641–659.
Anguita J V, Ahmad M, Haq S, Allam J, Silva S R P. Ultra-broadband light trapping using nanotextured decoupled graphene multilayers. Nanotechnology, 2016, 2, e1501238.
Hammond P T. Form and function in multilayer assembly: New applications at the nanoscale. Advanced Materials, 2004, 15, 1271–1293.
Askar K, Gu Z X, Leverant C J, Wang J M, Kim C, Jiang B, Jiang P. Self-assembled nanoparticle antireflection coatings on geometrically complex optical surfaces. Optics Letters, 2018, 43, 5238–5241.
Parnell A J, Bradford J E, Curran E V, Washington A L, Adams G, Brien M N, Burg S L, Morochz C, Fairclough J P A, Vukusic P, Martin S J, Doak S, Nadeau N J. Wing scale ultrastructure underlying convergent and divergent iridescent colours in mimetic Heliconius butterflies. Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 2018, 15, 17425689.
Lee S, Mason D R, In S, Park N. Embedding metal electrodes in thick active layers for ITO-free plasmonic organic solar cells with improved performance. Optics Express, 2014, 22, A1145–A1152.
Han Z W, Niu S C, Zhang L F, Liu Z N, Ren L Q. Light trapping effect in wing scales of butterfly papilio peranthus and its simulations. Journal of Bionic Engineering, 2013, 10, 162–169.
Wang K J, Zhang J Q, Fang Y Q, Chen D B, Liu L P, Han Z W, Ren L Q. Micro/nano-scale characterization and fatigue fracture resistance of mechanoreceptor with crack-shaped slit arrays in scorpion. Journal of Bionic Engineering, 2019, 16, 410–422.
He Y D, Zhang Z L, Xue J, Wang X H, Song F, Wang X L, Zhu L L, Wang Y Z. Biomimetic optical cellulose nanocrystal films with controllable iridescent color and environmental stimuli-responsive chromism. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2018, 10, 5805–5811.
Rodríguez R E, Agarwal S P, An S, Kazya E, Das D, Shang W, Skye R, Deng T, Dasgupta N P. Biotemplated morpho butterfly wings for tunable structurally colored photocatalysts. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2018, 10, 4614–4621.
Zhang Z H, Chen Z Y, Sun L Y, Zhang X X, Zhao Y J. Bio-inspired angle-independent structural color films with anisotropic colloidal crystal array domains. Nano Research, 2019, 12, 1579–1584.
Niu S C, Li B, Mu Z Z, Yang M, Zhang J Q, Han Z W, Ren L Q. Excellent structure-based multifunction of morpho butterfly wings: A review. Journal of Bionic Engineering, 2015, 12, 170–189.
Chan L W, Morse D E, Gordon M J. Moth eye-inspired anti-reflective surfaces for improved IR optical systems & visible LEDs fabricated with colloidal lithography and etching. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, 2018, 13, 041001.
Zeng Y, Chen X F, Yi Z, Yi Y G, Xu X B. Fabrication of p-n heterostructure ZnO/Si moth-eye structures: Antireflection, enhanced charge separation and photocatalytic properties. Applied Surface Science, 2018, 441, 40–48.
Xie H, Huang H X, Peng Y J. Rapid fabrication of bio-inspired nanostructure with hydrophobicity and antireflectivity on polystyrene surface replicating from cicada wings. Nanoscale, 2017, 9, 11951–11958.
Zada I, Zhang W, Sun P, Imtiaz M, Abbas W, Zhang D. Multifunctional, angle dependent antireflection, and hydrophilic properties of SiO2 inspired by nano-scale structures of cicada wings. Applied Physics Letters, 2017, 111, 153701.
Levenson R, Bracken C, Bush N, Morse D E. Cyclable condensation and hierarchical assembly of metastable reflectin proteins, the drivers of tunable biophotonics. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2016, 291, 4058–4068.
Demartini D G, Izumi M, Weaver A T, Pandolfi E, Morse D E. Structures, organization, and function of reflectin proteins in dynamically tunable reflective cells. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2015, 290, 15238–15249.
Stavenga D G, Foletti S, Palasantzas G, Arikawa K. Light on the moth-eye corneal nipple array of butterflies. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2006, 273, 661–667.
Boden S A, Bagnall D M. Tunable reflection minima of nanostructured antireflective surfaces. Applied Physics Letters, 2009, 93, 133108.
Chattopadhyay S, Huang Y F, Jen Y J, Ganguly A, Chen K H, Chen L C. Anti-reflecting and photonic nanostructures. Materials Science and Engineering R: Reports, 2010, 69, 1–35.
Bruggeman D A G. Berechnung verschiedener physikalischer konstanten von heterogenen substanzen. i. dielektrizitätskonstanten und leitfähigkeiten der mischkörper aus isotropen substanzen. Annalen der Physik, 1935, 416, 636–664.
Rytov S M. Electromagnetic properties of a finely stratified medium. Soviet Physics Jetp-Ussr, 1956, 2, 466–475.
Gombert A, Glaubitt W, Rose K, Dreibholz J, Blasi B, Heinzel A, Sporn D, Doll W, Wittwer V. Subwavelength-structured antireflective surfaces on glass. Thin Solid Films, 1999, 351, 73–78.
Jayasinghe R C, Perera A G U, Zhu H, Zhao Y. Optical properties of nanostructured TiO2 thin films and their application as antireflection coatings on infrared detectors. Optics Letters, 2012, 37, 4302–4304.
Braun M M, Pilon L. Effective optical properties of non-absorbing nanoporous thin films. Thin Solid Films, 2006, 496, 505–514.
Han Z W, Wang Z, Li B, Feng X M, Jiao Z B, Zhang J Q, Zhao J, Niu S C, Ren L Q. Flexible self-cleaning broadband antireflective film inspired by the transparent cicada wings. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2019, 11, 17019–17027.
Ji S, Song K, Nguyen T B, Kim N, Lim H. Optimal moth eye nanostructure array on transparent glass towards broadband antireflection. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2013, 5, 10731–10737.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2018YFA0703300), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51835006, 51875244, 51505183, 51325501), JLU Science and Technology Innovative Research Team (No. 2017TD-04), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation Funded Project (2018T110246), Joint Construction Project of Jilin University and Jilin Province (SXGJSF2017–3), and Outstanding Young Talent Fund of Jilin Province (20170520095JH), Scientific and Technological Development Program of Changchun City (Double Ten Project-19SS001), Science and Technology Development Program of Jilin Province (Technology R&D Project-20190302021GX).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecomm-ons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, Z., Li, B., Feng, X. et al. Rapid Fabrication of Bio-inspired Antireflection Film Replicating From Cicada Wings. J Bionic Eng 17, 34–44 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42235-020-0001-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42235-020-0001-z