Reflector of the body photophore in lanternfish is mechanistically tuned to project the biochemical emission in photocytes for counterillumination.

Lanternfish, a family Myctophidae, use ventro-lateral body photophores for camouflage of the ventral silhouette, a strategy called counterillumination. While other deep-sea fishes possess pigmented filters and silver reflectors to match sunlight filtering down through the depths, myctophids developed a blue-green reflector for this purpose. In this study, we showed in a lanternfish Diaphus watasei that the reflector comprised monolayered iridophores containing multilayered guanine crystals which enable high reflection with light interference colouration.

Immobilization of methylviologen between well-ordered multilayers of manganese oxide during their electrochemical assembly.

Methylviologen dications (MV2+) were immobilized between layers of manganese oxide during their electrochemical assembly by an anodic route in a homogeneous aqueous Mn2+ solution. This approach yielded a well-ordered multilayer film on a platinum substrate as a result of dense packing of planar MV2+ molecules to stabilize the layered framework. A grazing angle in-plane X-ray diffraction study revealed that the manganese oxide sheets and the molecular planes of inserted MV2+ ions are oriented parallel to the electrode surface.