Structural color materials from polydopamine that mimic melanin

The beautiful structural colors in bird feathers are one of the brightest colors in nature, and some of these colors are created by arrays of melanin granules that act as both structural colors and scattering absorbers. In this review, we provide an overview of recent studies on structural color materials based on polydopamine particles that mimic melanin granules. This simple and novel process of using polydopamine-based particles will be used in basic research on structural colors in nature as well as their practical applications such as structural color inks.