ABSTRACT
Many of the biomaterials nature uses to create its photonic systems are themselves very attractive for future applications. Biological materials range from biopolymers, such as chitin, to vivid fluorescent proteins and more. Scientific interests in these materials, how they are formed and how we might leverage their useful properties, form the basis of a growing area of development. One reason that biomaterials are of interest is the potential for greatly reduced cost compared with other inorganic materials. Many biomaterials are easily obtainable on large scales from the waste products of other industries or historical domestication. Organic optical systems, such as organic light emitting diode displays, are a huge area of technology development because of the lower cost compared with complex semiconductor fabrication requirements. Fabrication of organic devices uses less energy than their semiconductor counterparts. Biomaterials also enable fabrication of flexible or curved devices and systems. e mechanical properties of biomaterials can be tuned according to their composition, which enables their deposition, casting, and coating into and onto a wide variety of substrate conformations. Use of these materials may be less environmentally hazardous, as well. As our society moves further and further toward viewing even high-performance systems as disposable technologies (one could argue that we have already reached that point), the lifetimes over which these systems must perform become shorter, and biodegradability, lack of environmental toxicity, and recyclability become increasingly important.
