Cashmere-derived keratin for device manufacturing on the micro- and nanoscale

Cashmere-derived keratin was extracted in water solution and then processed using a slow drying technique to obtain flexible, transparent, conformable optical elements. Using soft-lithography techniques, keratin film surfaces were micro- and nano-patterned to obtain biocompatible, compostable, microlens arrays and multidimensional diffractive gratings. Alternatively, keratin was assembled to form periodic three-dimensional nanostructures (i.e. inverse opals) to control and manipulate the flow of light through its lattices.