We have cracked the color-changing codes of both the chameleon and the octopus, we're printing structural color from an inkjet, and making something apparently darker than vantablack. But I'm really just here to say words like nanophotonic metamaterials, and quantum polycrystals.
'OCTOID,' a soft robot that changes color and moves like an octopus
Dec 2025, phys.org
By precisely controlling the helical molecular arrangement and polymer network structure of this material, they achieved a structure capable of both soft, flexible movement and color changes, just like an actual octopus tentacle.When an electrical signal is applied, the helical molecular arrangement and polymer network structure of this material's surface undergoes microscopic contraction and expansion, displaying a continuous color change from blue to green to red. It also performs bending and unfolding motions through asymmetric structural changes. Through this process, OCTOID can simultaneously perform three functions - camouflaging, moving, and grabbing - within a single system, just like a real octopus.
via Composite Materials Research Center of the Korea Institute of Science and Technology: Seung Hui Han et al, OCTOID: A Soft Robotic System Featuring Programmable Shape Morphing and Dynamic Structural Coloration, Advanced Functional Materials (2025). DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202520014
Absolutely Completely Unrelated Image Credit: (are we still pretending to care about attribution?)
Chameleon-like nanomaterial can adapt its color to mechanical strain
Dec 2025, phys.org
2D nanophotonic metamaterial - Kirigami-inspired structural color, as different from pigment or dye colors - When the material is stretched, its microscopic patterns move and rotate, changing how light reflects from the surface. As a result, during the stretching, the color of the light reflected from this 'nanoscale chameleon skin' shifts smoothly from green to yellow and finally to red.
via University fo Amsterdam: Freek van Gorp et al, Nonlocal Mechano-Optical Metasurfaces, ACS Photonics (2025). DOI: 10.1021/acsphotonics.5c01385
Smart material instantly changes colors on demand for use in textiles and consumer products
Dec 202,5 phys.org
They stacked a thin layer of vanadium dioxide on top of a reflective aluminum layer. When heated above a specific temperature, the vanadium dioxide turns from an insulator to a metal, accompanied by a change in its crystalline structure. When light hits this stack, some bounces off the top of the vanadium dioxide, while the rest passes through and bounces off the aluminum below. These two reflected paths of light interfere with each other. The rapid structural change in vanadium dioxide alters the timing of light bouncing from the top and the bottom, making them out of phase. This changes the color that is canceled out, which, in turn, changes the color we see.
via University of Florida: Aritra Biswas et al, Dynamic control of phase for tunable structural colors, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2520990122
Bird-of-paradise inspires darkest fabric ever made
Dec 2025, phys.org
They dyed a white merino wool knit fabric with polydopamine, followed by etching of the material in a plasma chamber to create spiky nanofibrils, to mimic the light-trapping capabilities found on the riflebird's ultrablack feathers.
via Cornell University College of Human Ecology Responsive Apparel Design Lab: Hansadi Jayamaha et al, Ultrablack wool textiles inspired by hierarchical avian structure, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-65649-4
Structural color can now be printed with an inkjet printer
Apr 2026, phys.org
Spherical silicon crystals that reflect color specifically based on their precise size in the range between 100 and 200 nanometers can now be printed at resolutions between 250 and 125 dots per inch onto a flat PET film as well as on a 3D metallic surface.
via Kobe University: Hiroto Yamana et al, Structural Color Inkjet Printing With Mie‐Resonant Silicon Nanoparticles, Advanced Materials (2026). DOI: 10.1002/adma.202523036
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