Research: Humidity can change colour of material

22 February 2018

The principle that colors can arise from the refraction of light on invisible microscopic structures, in addition to pigments, is something we know from nature. The Hercules beetle, for example, has a khaki green color, but in humid conditions the shield of the beetle turns black. Researchers from Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) have found a way to imitate this technique.
The 'trick' is that light has a certain color when it reflects on microscopically layered structures. The moisture causes the layered material to expand and create a different color. Applications are numerous, varying from packaging to security features on banknotes (News Item TU/e, 8 February 2018).
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