The eastern bluebird isn’t simply beautiful to look at. Its feathers also feature a unique structure that could revolutionise sustainable applications such as batteries and water filtration.
Specifically, the brilliant blue of the bird’s wings isn’t the result of colour pigmentation. Instead, it’s due to a network of channels with a diameter of a few hundred nanometres, traversing the feathers.
This network structure inspired researchers at ETH Zurich to replicate this material in the lab. They have now developed a synthetic material that exhibits the same structural design of the bluebird’s feathers — with the potential to deliver practical use cases, such as improved battery life.
The researchers experimented with a transparent silicone rubber that can be both stretched and deformed. They placed it in an oily solution, leaving it to swell for several days in an oven heated at 60 °C. They then cooled and extracted it.
The
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