Thermal investigation of material derived from the species Apatura iris

Abstract

The material’s size and shape influence its physical, chemical and mechanical properties. This study describes an investigation of natural photonic structure of the butterfly’s wing, mainly composed of chitin. The effect of corrugations at the nanoscale on material’s optical response is unambiguously revealed in the presented thermal measurements. Furthermore, the presented study shows the possibility of exploiting holography to monitor dynamics in situ.

Keywords

• apatura iris butterfly
• biopolymer chitin
• sensing dynamics in situ