Biomimetic Principles and Design of Advanced Engineering Materials

Zhenhai Xia

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781118533079
• eBook ISBN: 9781118926239
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technik & Maschinenbau
• Subtopic: Technik, Forschung & Kompetenzen

This book explores the structure-property-process relationship of biomaterials from engineering and biomedical perspectives, and the potential of bio-inspired materials and their applications. A large variety of natural materials with outstanding physical and mechanical properties have appeared in the course of evolution. From a bio-inspired viewpoint, materials design requires a novel and highly cross disciplinary approach. Considerable benefits can be gained by providing an integrated approach using bio-inspiration with materials science and engineering.

The book is divided into three parts; Part One focuses on mechanical aspects, dealing with conventional material properties: strength, toughness, hardness, wear resistance, impact resistance, self-healing, adhesion, and adaptation and morphing. Part Two focuses on functional materials with unique capabilities, such as self-cleaning, stimuli-response, structural color, anti-reflective materials, catalytic materials for clean energy conversion and storage, and other related topics. Part Three describes how to mimic natural materials processes to synthesize materials with low cost, efficient and environmentally friendly approaches. For each chapter, the approach is to describe situations in nature first and then biomimetic materials, fulfilling the need for an interdisciplinary approach which overlaps both engineering and materials science.

1
General Introduction

1.1 Historical Perspectives

Living organisms in nature have evolved over billions of years to produce a variety of unique materials that possess extraordinary abilities or characteristics, such as self‐cleaning, self‐healing, efficient energy conversion, brilliant structural colors, intelligence, and so on. These biological materials are made by nature using earth‐abundant elements at ambient temperature, pressure, and neutral pH. Mimicking these biological materials structures and processing could lead to the development of a new class of advanced engineering materials useful for various applications ranging from transportation (e.g., aircraft and automobiles) to energy production (e.g., turbine blades, artificial photosynthesis), to biomedical products (e.g., implants, drug delivery). Some of these solutions provided by nature have inspired humans to achieve outstanding outcomes. For example, artificial dry adhesives mimicking gecko foot hairs have shown strong adhesion, 10 times higher than what a gecko can achieve,¹ and the strength and stiffness of the hexagonal honeycomb have led to its adoption for use in lightweight structures in airplane and other applications.²

The idea of mimicking nature’s materials design has been around for thousands of years. Since the Chinese attempted to make artificial silk over 3000 years ago² there have been many examples of humans learning from nature to design new materials and related products. One of history’s great inventors, Leonardo da Vinci, is well known for his studies of living forms and for his inventions, which were often based on ideas derived from nature.³ Although the lessons learned by da Vinci and others were not always successful, as seen in the countless efforts throughout the ages by humans to fly like a bird, these explorations provided some clue for the Wright brothers, who designed a successful airplane after realizing that birds do not flap their wings continuously, rather they glide on air currents.⁴ Perhaps the most common and successful product developed based on bioinspiration is Velcro, a fastener. In the 1940s a Swiss engineer, George de Mestral, noticed how the seeds of an Alpine plant called burdock stuck to his dog's fur. Under a microscope, he saw that the seeds had hundreds of tiny hooks that caught on the hairs. This unique biological material structure inspired him to invent the nylon‐based fastener that is now commonly used.

Although the idea of learning from nature has been around for a long time, the science of biomimetics has gained popularity relatively recently. This approach, which uses nature’s blueprints to design and fabricate materials, dates back to the 1950s, when the term “biomimetics” was first introduced by Schmitt in 1957.⁵ Biomimetics is derived from bios, meaning life (Greek), and mimesis, meaning to imitate.⁶ The term “bionics” was introduced by Steele⁷ as “the science of systems, which has some function copied from nature, or which represents characteristics of natural systems or their analogues”. The term “biomimicry”, or imitation of nature, coined by Janine Benyus in 1997, refers to “copying or adaptation or derivation from biology”.⁸ From a materials science and engineering perspective, the science of biomimetic materials is thus the application of biological methods and principles found in nature to the study and design of engineering materials. This “new” science is based on the fundamentals of materials science and engineering, but takes ideas and concepts from nature and implements them in a field of technology. While the term “biomimetic” is frequently used in this book to describe mimicking the microstructure of biological materials, “bioinspired” is also employed to describe more general inspiration from nature.

The variety of life is huge; many things fascinate us. Leaves use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to produce fuel and oxygen. Geckos keep their sticky feet clean while running on dusty walls and ceilings. Some kinds of bacteria thrive in harmful environments by producing enzymes that break down toxic substances. Materials scientists are increasingly interested in how these phenomena work, and applying this knowledge to create new materials for clean energy conversion and storage, reusable self‐cleaning adhesives, cleaning up pollution, and much more. Once the biomimicking succeeds, the impact is enormous.

1.2 Biomimetic Materials Science and Engineering

1.2.1 Biomimetic Materials from Biology to Engineering

Applying materials design principles taken from nature’s design to engineering materials can create a new paradigm in materials science and engineering. The term “biomimetic materials science and engineering” is defined here as the study and imitation of nature’s methods, mechanisms, and processes for the design and engineering of materials. Materials science, also commonly known as materials engineering, is a vibrant field creating various materials with specific properties and functions, and applying the materials to various areas of science and engineering. The knowledge, including physics and chemistry, is applied to the process, structure, properties, and performance of complex materials for technological applications. Many of the most pressing scientific problems that are currently faced today are due to the limitations of the materials that are currently available. As a result, breakthroughs in this field are likely to have a significant impact on the future of human technology. While humans make great efforts to look for better materials for technological applications, nature has already provided a vast reservoir of solutions to engineering problems, ready for us to exploit. Thus, it is necessary to extend materials science into biomimetic fields where scientists and engineers create materials with properties and performance beyond those of existing materials by mimicking nature‐designed structures, and discover new routes for manufacturing materials by imitating biological processes. The integration of biology, material sciences, chemistry, and physics together with nanotechnology and information technology has brought the subject of biomimetic materials to the science and engineering frontier (Figure 1.1); it represents a major international competitive sector of research for this new century.

Figure 1.1 Scope of biomimetic materials science and engineering, and its relationship with other disciplines.

1.2.2 Two Aspects of Biomimetic Materials Science and Engineering

Biomimetic materials science and engineering advocates looking at nature in new ways to fully appreciate and understand how it ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• 1 General Introduction
• Part I: Biomimetic Structural Materials and Processing
• Part II: Biomimetic Functional Materials and Processing
• Part III: Biomimetic Processing
• Index
• End User License Agreement