Overview
- A peer-reviewed Nature paper describes a flexible material that reversibly modulates both surface texture and color, taking cues from octopus camouflage.
- Electron-beam exposure programs regions of PEDOT:PSS to absorb water differently, creating nanoscale bumps that shift a surface from glossy to matte, with alcohol returning it to flat.
- Thin metallic layers form Fabry–Pérot cavities whose reflected wavelength shifts as the polymer’s thickness changes, yielding tunable color patterns.
- A multilayer prototype decouples color from texture for independent control, demonstrated with a nanoscale El Capitan relief and background-matching experiments.
- The system currently needs manual water and solvent adjustment, with plans for computer-vision and neural-network control and discussion of manufacturing limits from lithography and microfluidics.