A novel metallic silvery color caused by pointillistic mixing of disordered nano-to micro-pixels of iridescent colors

Rich iridescent structural colors in nature, such as peacock feathers, butterfly wings, beetle scales, and mollusc nacre, have attracted extensive attention for a long time and they generally result from the interaction between light and periodic structures. However, non-iridescent structural colors, such as silvery structural colors, have received relatively little attention, and they usually result from non-periodic structures. Here, using optical microscopy, fiber-optic spectrometry, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and laser Raman spectroscopy, we investigate the origin of a novel structural color occurring at the edge of a bivalve shell (i.e., an otter shell). We find that: (1) the structural colors are observed to be uniform metallic silvery when viewed with the naked eye; (2) they are surprisingly multicolored with various colorful pixels juxtaposed together when viewed with an optical microscope; (3) each individual pixel shows a single color originating from a periodic, multilayered organic film with definite spacing (d); and (4) different pixels vary significantly in size, shape, and color with different d values (202–387 nm). Finally, we confirm that the macroscopic silvery color results from the pointillistic mixing of nano-to microscale iridescent pixels. We also discuss the special photonic structure responsible for the silvery color. We hope that this work can not only accelerate our comprehension of photonic materials, but also provide new inspiration for the synthesis of silvery white materials.