Polymers of a feather stick together at University of Akron

The University of Akron's polymers program is taking to the skies to advance its materials research.

The university's College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering is using feathers from peacocks and other birds in research that could lead to the production of more vivid colors in cosmetics, wide-angle displays on tablets and televisions and other products, officials said in a recent news release.

A research article on that subject by interim dean Ali Dhinojwala, Ph.D. student Weiyao Li, and former students Ming Xiao and Xiaozhou Yang — along with researchers at Northwestern University, the University of Delaware and Ghent University in Belgium — recently was published in the journal Science Advances.

"Inspired by bird feathers, we want to control the surface packing of melanin particles to create [more vivid] structural colors," Xiao said in the release. "Bird feathers are unique in producing structure colors by using organizing melanin particles in ordered patterns, like hexagonal or square."

Structural colors are colors that are reflected when microscopic surfaces interfere with visible light. On the peacock, for example, tail feathers have brown pigment, or melanin, but their microscopic structure makes them reflect the dazzling colors including blue, green and turquoise.

If the Akron research team can control the way the particles come together on a surface, they can influence the vividness of the colors that are reflected, officials said.

"This understanding will guide us to construct more polymers with finer-tuned surface structures that lead to desired properties, like structure colors," Xiao added.