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      Optical Properties of Diatom Nanostructured Biosilica in Arachnoidiscus sp: Micro-Optics from Mother Nature

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          Abstract

          Some natural structures show three-dimensional morphologies on the micro- and nano- scale, characterized by levels of symmetry and complexity well far beyond those fabricated by best technologies available. This is the case of diatoms, unicellular microalgae, whose protoplasm is enclosed in a nanoporous microshell, made of hydrogenated amorphous silica, called frustule. We have studied the optical properties of Arachnoidiscus sp. single valves both in visible and ultraviolet range. We found photonic effects due to diffraction by ordered pattern of pores and slits, accordingly to an elaborated theoretical model. For the first time, we experimentally revealed spatial separation of focused light in different spots, which could be the basis of a micro-bio-spectrometer. Characterization of such intricate structures can be of great inspiration for photonic devices of next generation.

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          Polycationic peptides from diatom biosilica that direct silica nanosphere formation.

          N KrÖger, R Deutzmann, M Sumper (1999)
          Diatom cell walls are regarded as a paradigm for controlled production of nanostructured silica, but the mechanisms allowing biosilicification to proceed at ambient temperature at high rates have remained enigmatic. A set of polycationic peptides (called silaffins) isolated from diatom cell walls were shown to generate networks of silica nanospheres within seconds when added to a solution of silicic acid. Silaffins contain covalently modified lysine-lysine elements. The first lysine bears a polyamine consisting of 6 to 11 repeats of the N-methyl-propylamine unit. The second lysine was identified as epsilon-N,N-dimethyl-lysine. These modifications drastically influence the silica-precipitating activity of silaffins.
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            A proton buffering role for silica in diatoms.

            M Morel, Lauren Milligan (2002)
            For 40 million years, diatoms have dominated the reverse weathering of silica on Earth. These photosynthetic protists take up dissolved silicic acid from the water and precipitate opaline silica to form their cell wall. We show that the biosilica of diatoms is an effective pH buffer, enabling the enzymatic conversion of bicarbonate to CO2, an important step in inorganic carbon acquisition by these organisms. Because diatoms are responsible for one-quarter of global primary production and for a large fraction of the carbon exported to the deep sea, the global cycles of Si and C may be linked mechanistically.
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              Highly Efficient Light-Trapping Structure Design Inspired By Natural Evolution

              Chen Wang, Shuangcheng Yu, Wei-hui Chen … (2013)
              Recent advances in nanophotonic light trapping open up the new gateway to enhance the absorption of solar energy beyond the so called Yablonovitch Limit. It addresses the urgent needs in developing low cost thin-film solar photovoltaic technologies. However, current design strategy mainly relies on the parametric approach that is subject to the predefined topological design concepts based on physical intuition. Incapable of dealing with the topological variation severely constrains the design of optimal light trapping structure. Inspired by natural evolution process, here we report a design framework driven by topology optimization based on genetic algorithms to achieve a highly efficient light trapping structure. It has been demonstrated that the optimal light trapping structures obtained in this study exhibit more than 3-fold increase over the Yablonovitch Limit with the broadband absorption efficiency of 48.1%, beyond the reach of intuitive designs.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Dario Pisignano: Role: Editor
                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): PLoS One
                Journal ID (iso-abbrev): PLoS ONE
                Journal ID (publisher-id): plos
                Journal ID (pmc): plosone
                Title: PLoS ONE
                Publisher: Public Library of Science (San Francisco, USA )
                ISSN (Electronic): 1932-6203
                Publication date Collection: 2014
                Publication date (Electronic): 30 July 2014
                Volume: 9
                Issue: 7
                Electronic Location Identifier: e103750
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Institute for Microelectronic and Microsystems, Department of Naples, National Research Council, Naples, Italy
                [2 ]Laboratory of Biology of Algae, Department of Biology, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy
                [3 ]Department of Environmental, biological, and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies, Second University of Naples, Caserta, Italy
                Universita’ degli Studi del Salento, Italy
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                Conceived and designed the experiments: EDT LDS MDS. Performed the experiments: EDT GC MAF PD I. Rea. Analyzed the data: EDT GC MAF. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MDS RC AA EDT. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: MAF PD LDS I. Rea GC I. Rendina RC AA MDS EDT.

                Article
                Publisher ID: PONE-D-14-22254
                DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0103750
                PMC ID: 4116236
                PubMed ID: 25076045
                SO-VID: 68c744cf-9285-449e-a9c0-15b75519fe37
                Copyright statement: Copyright @ 2014
                License:

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                Date received : 19 May 2014
                Date accepted : 2 July 2014
                Page count
                Pages: 8
                Funding
                Funding provided by Ministero Istruzione Università e Ricerca (MIUR) Programma “Futuro in Ricerca” FIRB project RBFR08QXL2/2008 http://futuroinricerca.miur.it EDT MDS. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
                Categories
                Subject: Research Article
                Subject: Biology and Life Sciences
                Subject: Biophysics
                Subject: Bionanotechnology
                Subject: Organisms
                Subject: Plants
                Subject: Algae
                Subject: Physical Sciences
                Subject: Physics
                Subject: Optics
                Subject: Holography
                Subject: Holograms
                Subject: Focal Planes
                Subject: Research and Analysis Methods
                Subject: Imaging Techniques
                Subject: Image Analysis
                Subject: Microscopy
                Subject: Electron Microscopy
                Subject: Scanning Electron Microscopy
                Subject: Simulation and Modeling
                Subject: Mathematical Modeling
                Custom metadata
                Data Availability The authors confirm that all data underlying the findings are fully available without restriction. All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.

                ScienceOpen disciplines: Uncategorized
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                ScienceOpen disciplines: Uncategorized

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