Butterfly-inspired structural colours could replace synthetic pigments
By 
Rebecca Trager2026-09-08T09:40:00
Inspired by nature, chemists in the US are working to create vibrant, long-lasting and safer colours that could be used in food, cosmetics and paints
Chemists at Northeastern University in Boston are developing new colourants that are based on structural colour rather than pigments and are therefore longer lasting, more vibrant and safer. The yet-to-be published research, carried out in the lab of Leila Deravi, was presented by her graduate student Clara Wen Dou at the American Chemical Society meeting on 26 August in Chicago.