Melanin-based structural coloration of birds and its biomimetic applications

Melanin has been a widely researched pigment by scientists for decades as it is undoubtedly the most ubiquitous and ancient pigment found in nature. Melanin plays very significant roles in structural plumage colors in birds: it has visible light-absorbing capabilities, and nanoscale structures can be formed by self-assembling melanin granules. Herein, we review recent progress on melanin-based structural coloration research. We hope that this review will provide current understanding of melanin’s structural and optical properties, natural coloration mechanisms, and biomimetic methods to implement artificial melanin-based structural colors.

• Publication year

  2021

• Venue

  Applied Microscopy

• Publication date

  2021-10-11

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Materials Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1186/s42649-021-00063-wPMID 34633588PMCID 8505553
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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