The direct use of naturally occurring, small molecular ingredients in bioinspired sunscreens has raised several concerns due to the instability, photocytotoxicity, and potential blood toxicity of those ingredients. In this work, we have employed natural ultraviolet (UV)-blocking molecule caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE) from propolis to prepare poly(CAPE) nanoparticles (NPs) as the main bioactive ingredient to fabricate propolis-inspired hydrogel sunscreens. Compared with small molecular CAPE, poly(CAPE) NPs exhibited better dispersion and stability in water, as well as lower physiological toxicity and skin permeability. And the resulting composite hydrogels demonstrated promising properties including water-resistant whereas can be easily erased by warm water as well as safety when interacting with skin. More importantly, the hydrogel sunscreens showed excellent UV protection properties both in vitro and in vivo, and the positive effects in maintaining skin barrier functions. This work provides new strategies towards the facile construction of nature-inspired robust sunscreens in the future.

Discovery and development of new sustainable photothermal materials with tunable light absorption spectra play a key role in solar energy harvesting and conversion. One possible solution to this quest is to check nature as a source of matters or inspiration. Inspired by the formation of tea stains, a unique class of dark stain materials generated by the interfacial reaction between tea polyphenols and metal substance, we reported the facile preparation and screening of a series of photothermal nanocoating layers via the metal ion (i.e. Cu(II),Fe(III), Ni(II), Zn(II)) promoted in situ polymerization of typical phenolic moieties of tea polyphenols (i.e., catechol and pyrogallol). It was found that those resulting metal-polyphenolic nanocoatings showed various promising features, such as high blackness and strong adhesion, excellent and tunable light absorption properties, good hydrophilicity and long-term stability. We further fabricated the photothermal composite devices by in situ formation of metal-polyphenolic nanocoatings on pristine silks for solar desalination, which demonstrated promising durable evaporation behaviors with excellent evaporation rates and steam generation efficiencies. We believe that this work could provide more opportunities towards new types of bio-inspired and sustainable photothermal nanomaterials for solar energy harvesting applications such as water desalination.