Sandia National Labs Academic Alliance Collaboration Report 2020-2021

EXAMINING CICADA WINGS TO SPARK IDEAS FOR ARTIFICIAL STRUCTURE DESIGN

What unique features can be found in cicada wings, and how could those properties be used to design other structures? To answer these questions, Marianne Alleyne and Nenad

Miljkovic from U of Illinois, Jessica Kustas from Sandia, and other researchers from the U.S.

Army Corps of Engineers studied two cicada species, Neotibicen pruinosus and Magicicada casinnii. “We chose to work with wings of this species of cicada because our past work demonstrates how the complex nanostructures on their wings provide an outstanding ability to repel water. That is a highly desirable property which will be useful in many materials engineering applications, from aircraft wings to medical equipment,” said Alleyne, an entomology professor. Kustas added, “Previous research had already shown that some species of cicada illustrated superhydrophobicity, antimicrobial, and self-cleaning properties on their wings. Our hope was to expose the differences in species to build an understanding as to the mechanisms by which these species possess these features, and for the species that do not, why they don’t. The overall hope was/is to implement the mechanisms that create these features into man-made surfaces to create multi- functional surfaces.”

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Sandia Academic Alliance Program