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Butterflies ^[4] are beautiful, delicate marvels of nature. While their lovely appearance may be inspiring, there’s nothing a butterfly can teach us about renewable energy – or is there? An ambitious University of Pennsylvania professor named Shu Yang recently used holographic lithography to develop a material that mimics the iridescent and water-resistant qualities of butterfly wings ^[5]. The project garnered enough attention that the teacher landed a grant to develop butterfly-inspired hydrophobic coatings for drier, cleaner and hence more efficient solar panels ^[6].

Butterfly Wing ^[7] photo from Shutterstock ^[8]

Most of us aren’t even aware of what makes real butterfly wings so pretty, so the idea of recreating the effect in a static material is even more mind-boggling. New Scientist explains ^[9] how it works:

“Yang used holographic lithography to recreate the wings’ reflective properties, using a laser to make a 3D ^[10] cross-linked pattern in a kind of material called photoresist. A solvent then washes away all the photoresist untouched by the laser, creating the 3D structure that affects light to create the colour effects. Then a poorer solvent roughens the surface, creating the texture that makes butterfly wings water-resistant.”

While a more beautiful solar panel ^[11] certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing, you might be wondering why Yang went through all this trouble to make panels that imitate the butterfly. Apparently, it’s a case of form influencing function – solar panels spend a lot of time directly exposed to the elements. When dirt and moisture builds up on the surface, efficiency decreases–drastically. Yang’s special coating could help preserve solar efficiency ^[12] by keeping panels clean and dry without a lot of extra effort.

In the future, Yang envisions covering entire buildings with the iridescent substance. The coated buildings could be connected to a chip that lets the owners change the color and transparency. There wouldn’t be any specific energy conservation gains, but it sure would be beautiful.

+ Advanced Function Materials ^[13]

Via New Scientist ^[9] and Treehugger ^[14]

Lead image via Advanced Functional Materials