Biological composites—complex structures for functional diversity
By M. Eder, Shahrouz Amini, P. Fratzl. Science, 2018
356 citations recorded by the source corpus.
The bulk of Earth’s biological materials consist of few base substances—essentially proteins, polysaccharides, and minerals—that assemble into large varieties of structures. Multifunctionality arises naturally from this structural complexity: An example is the combination of rigidity and flexibility in protein-based teeth of the squid sucker ring. Other examples are time-delayed actuation in plant seed pods triggered by environmental signals, such as fire and water, and surface nanostructures that combine light manipulation with mechanical protection or water repellency. Bioinspired engineering transfers some of these structural principles into technically more relevant base materials to obtain new, often unexpected combinations of material properties. Less appreciated is the huge potential of using bioinspired structural complexity to avoid unnecessary chemical diversity, enabling easier recycling and, thus, a more sustainable materials economy.
Subfields: Biomaterials, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6b57ec34921660e29a6e8826b0137e1d2cc63eb9
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Citations in the corpus
- Material-structure-performance integrated laser-metal additive manufacturing (2021, background): ““Biomimicry” or “bioinspiration,” the development of solutions based on biological adaptations, aims to provide the optimized material and structural strategies learned from nature in solving engineering problems (51, 52).”