The University of Cambridge has made material a donation to the first exhibition of The Museum of Plant Art (October 2023). This plant-based film with nanocrystals gets cooler when the light hits its surface because of its crystals, which also give the material an iridescent look. This effect naturally happens in flowers and plants too, which have very complex systems to heat up and cool down so they can provide pollinators with the perfect ambient temperature. Pollinators can distinguish temperature variations of 0.25 degrees Celsius.   

We, humans, have only learnt to produce cellulose with this coating as recently as May 2023. I am incredibly thankful to Professor Silvia Vignolini and Dr Qingchen Shen from the Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry of the University of Cambridge for their support.