Melanin Biopolymers: Tailoring Chemical Complexity for Materials Design
Abstract
Melanins, a group of dark insoluble pigments found widespread in nature, have become the focus of growing interest in materials science for various biomedical and technological applications, including opto‐bioelectronics, nanomedicine and mussel‐inspired surface coating. Recent progress in the understanding of melanin optical, paramagnetic redox, and conductivity properties, including photoconductivity, would point to a revision of the traditional concept of structural disorder in terms of more sophisticated and interrelated levels of chemical complexity which however have never been defined and codified. Herein, we bring to focus the various levels of structural disorder that emerged from spectral and chemical signatures over the past decade. A revised approach to structure–property relationships in terms of intermolecular interactions is also provided that may pave the way towards the rational design of next‐generation melanin‐based functional materials.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Mar 18, 2020
- Source ID
- 10.1002/ange.201914276
Entities
People
- Alessandra Napolitano
- Alessandro Pezzella
- Marco d'Ischia
- Markus J. Buehler
- Paul Meredith
Organizations
- Army Research Office
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Ministry of Education, Universities and Research
- National Institutes of Health
- Office of Naval Research
- Swansea University
- University of Naples Federico II