Advancements in Paint

The Blue Morpho Butterfly; its color comes not from the pigments on its wings, but from the way the light refracts on the microstructures of its wings (see image below).

I really like the sound of plasmonic pixels. But let’s not forget the biomimetic method of structural color vs. chemicals and pigments. The Morpho butterfly is an example where the colors are not a matter of surface treatment but of the structure of the wings themselves. They refract light differently to create a colorful pattern, although the wing is really all the same “color.”

Plasmonic pixels could be used to make non-fading paint

phys.org, Jun 2016

This shows how the structures on the surface of the wings create the different colors.

Post Script:

Here’s a book about where color came from:

The Color Revolution, Regina Lee Blaszczyk, MIT Press 2012

And here’s my review