Inspired by the chameleon's ability to change color, the researchers developed a dynamic and sustainable color-changing ink, which can be seen in this illustration of a 3D-printed chameleon created by the research team. **sanghyun jeon，diao lab。
Inspired by the chameleon's ability to change color, researchers have developed a sustainable technology that can 3D print multiple dynamic colors from a single ink.
By designing new chemical compositions and printing processes, we can dynamically adjust the color of the structure to produce color gradations that were not possible before," said Diao Ying, associate professor of chemistry, chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a researcher at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.
The study was published in the journal PNAS.
This work is a great illustration of the power of collaboration," said co-author Damien Guironnet, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering.
In this study, Diao and her colleagues proposed a UV-assisted direct ink-write 3D printing method that is able to control the evaporative assembly of specially designed cross-linked polymers by adjusting the light, thereby changing the color of the structure during the printing process.
Unlike traditional colors, which come from chemical pigments or dyes that absorb light, the abundant structural colors in many biological systems come from nanotextured surfaces that interfere with visible light. This makes them more dynamic and potentially more sustainable," said lead author Sanghyun Jeon, a graduate student in Diao's lab.
Researchers can produce structural colors in the visible wavelength spectrum from dark blue to orange. While the artist may have used many different pigments to achieve this color gradient, the research team used a single ink and modified its printing style to create the color gradient.
This work shows that by sharing our successes and challenges, we all learn from each other," said Simon Rogers, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering.
It is only by working together that we can design this system at the molecular level to produce such fascinating properties," said Charles Sing, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and materials science and engineering.