We just published a paper in Zeitschrift für physikalische Chemie (Journal for physical chemistry) where we investigate abundant biomaterials related to their nanostructure based functionalities and how we can transfer them to engineering, best in biobased and biodegradable materials.

It is not enough to use biobased materials. They also need to be biodegradable if we want to achieve sustainability.

(e.g., PVC can be made from plant based materials, and would nevertheless take half an eternoty to degrade ... )

Here the link to the paper: https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/zpch-2024-0913

doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/zpch-2024-0913

The image shows chitosan, a derivative of chitin, which is structurally functionalized with a diffraction grating made of chitosan (so the chitosan itself is structured) resulting in nice rainbow colors.

We also transfered these structure-based colcours to keratin and cellulose.

Chitin: shrimp shells, butterfly wings

Keratin: wool, horns, hooves

Cellulose: plants