Morpho sulkowskyi butterfly wings contain naturally occurring hierarchical nanostructures that produce structural coloration. The high aspect ratio and surface area of these wings make them attractive nanostructured templates for applications in solar energy and photocatalysis. However, biomimetic approaches to replicate their complex structural features and integrate functional materials into their three-dimensional framework are highly limited in precision and scalability. Herein, a biotemplating approach is presented that precisely replicates Morpho nanostructures by depositing nanocrystalline ZnO coatings onto wings via low-temperature atomic layer deposition (ALD). This study demonstrates the ability to precisely tune the natural structural coloration while also integrating multifunctionality by imparting photocatalytic activity onto fully intact Morpho wings. Optical spectroscopy and finite-difference time-domain numerical modeling demonstrate that ALD ZnO coatings can rationally tune the structural coloration across the visible spectrum. These structurally colored photocatalysts exhibit an optimal coating thickness to maximize photocatalytic activity, which is attributed to trade-offs between light absorption and catalytic quantum yield with increasing coating thickness. These multifunctional photocatalysts present a new approach to integrating solar energy harvesting into visually attractive surfaces that can be integrated into building facades or other macroscopic structures to impart aesthetic appeal.

中文翻译：

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生物模板化的Morpho蝴蝶翼，用于可调节的结构有色光催化剂

Morpho sulkowskyi蝴蝶翅膀包含自然产生的分层纳米结构，可产生结构着色。这些机翼的高纵横比和表面积使它们成为有吸引力的纳米结构模板，可用于太阳能和光催化。但是，仿生方法复制其复杂的结构特征并将功能性材料集成到其三维框架中的方法在精度和可伸缩性方面受到很大限制。本文中，提出了一种生物模板方法，可精确复制Morpho通过低温原子层沉积（ALD）将纳米晶ZnO涂层沉积到机翼上形成纳米结构。这项研究证明了能够精确调节天然结构色的能力，同时通过将光催化活性赋予完全完整的Morpho来整合多功能性翅膀。光谱学和时域有限差分数值模拟表明，ALD ZnO涂层可以合理地调整可见光谱范围内的结构颜色。这些结构着色的光催化剂表现出最佳的涂层厚度以最大化光催化活性，这归因于光吸收与催化量子产率之间的权衡与涂层厚度的增加。这些多功能光催化剂提出了一种新方法，可将太阳能收集整合到视觉吸引人的表面上，这些表面可以整合到建筑物的外墙或其他宏观结构中，从而赋予美观。