The photonic ultrastructure of Morphobutterfly
wing scales has attracted muchattention recently due to
the excellent multifunctional features of photonic
structures. Since Morphobutterfly wings exhibit excellent functionalities, they may help in developing new
bioinspired designs in the fields of materials science and
technology. In this article, we have presented recent
efforts in the development of the excellent multifunctional features of photonic structures in Morphobutterfly wings, a series of milestones in Morphobutterfly
research during the last decade, our understanding of
Morphobutterfly wings’ versatility. We have summarized the recent developments in multifunctional features of Morphobutterfly wing surfaces, including diversity functions, models and mechanism of the multifunction of Morphobutterfly wings. This is an exciting
field with tremendous opportunities for both fundamental and technological aspects.
The multifunction of Morphobutterfly wings is one
of the numerous examples found in nature, which has
important and extensive academic values. These functions have close relationship with the unique structures
in the wing scales. The previous research in this field has
mainly focused on the newly designed and constructed
functional materials by using the structures of Morpho
butterflies directly as bio-templates, which is termed as
the biotemplated materials. Recently, the development
direction of the research has gradually moved from
simple structure replication to functional reproduction.
Of course, the reproduction of structure-function integrated materials inspired from Morphobutterfly wings is
a more ambitious and important goal. On the other hand,
more and more works have concentrated on investigating the relationship between structures and functions.
After establishing theoretical models for design and
fabrication, functions of the artificial materials or systems would be comparable or even enhanced.
It was concluded that these functions of Morpho
butterfly wings have inevitable and corresponding regularity connection with the structural parameters and the
dielectric coefficient of the filled medium. For Morpho
butterflies, slight changes of structural parameters and
optical parameters of the filled medium will lead to
significant changes of the optical properties. In other
words, all the external medium or energy, which can
cause the changes of these two parameters, will cause
the spectral response of Morphobutterfly wings. For the
structures of Morphobutterfly wings, if we can achieve
the control of the structural parameters and optical parameters of the filled medium, then, we can control the
multifunction. We can control the sensitivity degree and
response speed of gas, liquid, temperature with the
structures of Morphobutterflies. We can control hydrophobic properties (contactangle) and the structural
color. However, all these features should rely on the
precision-nanometer manufacturing process. Furthermore, due to recent advancesin micro- and nanofabrication methods, it is now possible to fabricate complex
single or multiscale, hierarchical structures of polymer
in a highly reproducible and geometry controllable
manner. The diversity mechanism of butterfly functional
structures may provide guidelines for designing advanced composites.
The research of Morpho butterflies in recent year
has shown that several obstacles still remain towards
practical applications. It is hoped that this review will
provide a useful reference tool, bringing together research that has emerged recent years with ongoing efforts in the field of Morphobutterflies. Our attempts in
the areas of light trapping, structural color, superhydrophobic bionic surfaces, although at their infant stage,
will shed light on new directions as to how these multifunctional and multiscale bionic surface structures can
be exploited in practical and useful applications. Reviewing the direction of multifunctional features and
biomimetic studies of microstructure in Morphobutterflies, it can be speculated that the future research focused
on Morphobutterflies will be the integration of multifunction, large area manufacturing, product use and
tests