Cypris Materials

The multicolored feathers of a peacock, the brilliant blue wings of a morpho butterfly, and the metallic golden shell of a Chrysina beetle have one thing in common: they get their stunning color from biological nanostructures that have exactly the right spacing to reflect certain wavelengths of light. Scientists have long been interested in using this phenomenon to lend color to manufactured goods because traditional dyes and pigments require lots of water, energy, and harmful substances, such as heavy metals, aromatic amines, volatile organic compounds, and phthalates. In 2016, Ryan Pearson, then a materials chemistry PhD student at the University of Colorado Boulder, heard the apparel giant Nike present its dye problem at an industry workshop he attended. “Color was this huge environmental footprint for them,” he says. “And that’s kind of when it all clicked for me.” Structure-based colorants could offer an environmentally friendly option, but they have so