With more moisture, the green beetle slowly became redder and redder. Next, the researcher placed the beetle in an enclosed space where he could control the humidity. "That opens up all kinds of possibilities for future applications."
The beauty is that you can manipulate sensitivity to moisture, by making the molecules less or more charged. Watch this YouTube clip to see how Jeroen Sol printed the beetle. This then changes the color (see figure)."
With more moisture, the material swells, so to speak, stretching the spiral structure of the crystals. This causes the crystals in the ink to react to moisture. "First I printed a beetle from hard plastic, and applied elytra to it with photonic ink. And the choice of an animal is obvious, because there are numerous animals that make use of iridescence and other forms of color change, for example for camouflage."īut how does this beetle work? Sol explains. "In the world of materials science it is very important that you make a demonstrator that proves that your invention actually works. Think of a ring that measures perspiration, or in the future maybe your blood sugar."īut Sol went a step further. "Humans are largely composed of water, and a sensor that can easily and cheaply be printed using a 3D printer, and that responds to moisture, could have all kinds of applications in healthcare. That Sol chose moisture as a stimulus, rather than light (as PhD student Marina Pilz da Cunha from the same research group did earlier for her walking mini-robot), is not an accident. Is it possible to print an object that changes color under the influence of humidity? "I found the inspiration for this in nature, and in particular in the Tmesisternus isabellae, a species of longhorn beetle whose elytra changes color in response to humidity." The latter is exactly what Sol has been working on for the past four years.
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