Applications of Morpho-Butterfly's Strange Blue based on Nano-Randomness
Structural color of some blue Morpho butterflies has a physically mysterious feature from viewpoint of optics. We have recently proven the principle of the mystery by fabricating the specific structures by extracting the physical essence. The key was exquisite combination of both regular and irregular structures at nanometer scale on the surface of the butterfly’s scale. Although our researches were started from purely scientific interests, after we achieved the proof of the principle, such artificial structural color was found to concern wide applications. We have then extended our investigations to the next step for wide application studies, also still pursuing the scientific essence based on the nano-randomness.
As a result of the first study on secondary metabolites from the cosmopolitan bioluminescent marine tube polychaete Chaetopterus variopedatus, a new bicyclic guanidine alkaloid, 6-epi-monanchorin (1), along with the previously known monanchorin (2) were isolated. The structure of 1 was elucidated by...