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Nature's Engineering Marvels: the Structure and Chemistry of a Butterfly Wing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

V.S. Smentkowski ,
S.G. Ostrowski ,
E.J. Olson ,
J. Cournoyer ,
K. Dovidenko  and
R.A. Potyrailo
V.S. Smentkowski*
Affiliation:
General Electric Global Research Center, Niskayuna, NY
S.G. Ostrowski
Affiliation:
General Electric Global Research Center, Niskayuna, NY
E.J. Olson
Affiliation:
General Electric Global Research Center, Niskayuna, NY
J. Cournoyer
Affiliation:
General Electric Global Research Center, Niskayuna, NY
K. Dovidenko
Affiliation:
General Electric Global Research Center, Niskayuna, NY
R.A. Potyrailo
Affiliation:
General Electric Global Research Center, Niskayuna, NY
*
smentkow@research.ge.com

Extract

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Much effort is currently being expended in nanotechnology and other fields to build biomimetic, or nature-inspired, materials. The first step in this process is often to develop a more complete understanding of the structure and chemistry of biological systems. In this article, we will compare and contrast data collected on a common biological sample, a butterfly wing, using a variety of analytical techniques. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) was used in order to perform bright field imaging of the sample cross section; Light Microscopy (LM) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) were used to provide structural information of the outer wing surface at various magnifications; Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) was used in order to image the chemical composition of the outer most surface layer; and Focused Ion Beam (FIB) techniques were used to cut (micro machine) features into the wing.

Type
Research Article
Information
Microscopy Today , Volume 14 , Issue 6 , November 2006 , pp. 16 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2006

References

[1] LM, SEM, TEM, and FIB techniques have been used to analyze butterfly wings. The focus of our work is to compare and contrast a larger sampling of microscopy techniques on the same sample.Google Scholar
For LM see: Srinivasarao, M. et al., Chem. Rev. 99 (1999) 1935; Kinoshita, S. et al., Chem. Phys. Chem. 6 (2005) 1442; Vukusic, P. et al., Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 266 (1999) 1403, Vukusic, P., Science 310 (2005) 1151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
For SEM see: Kinoshita, S. et al., Proc R Soc Lond B 269 (2002) 1417.Google Scholar
For FIB see Stavenga, D.G. et al., Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 271 (2004) 1577.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
For TEM see Argyros, A. et al. Micron, 33 (2002) 483.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2] Kinoshita, S., Yoshioka, S., “Structural Colors in Nature: The Role of Regularity and Irregularity in the Structure”, Chem Phys Chem., 6 (2005) 1442.Google Scholar
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