Mimicry of Natural Material Designs and Processes

Biological structural materials, although composed of unremarkable substances synthesized at low temperatures, often exhibit superior mechanical properties. In particular, the quality in which nearly all biologically derived materials excel is toughness. The advantageous mechanical properties are attributable to the hierarchical, composite, structural arrangements common to biological systems. Materials scientists and engineers have increasingly recognized that biological designs or processing approaches applied to man-made materials (biomimesis) may offer improvements in performance over conventional designs and fabrication methods. In this survey, the structures and processing routes of marine shells, avian eggshells, wood, bone, and insect cuticle are briefly reviewed, and biomimesis research inspired by these materials is discussed. In addition, this paper describes and summarizes the applications of biomineralization, self-assembly, and templating with proteins to the fabrication of thin ceramic films and nanostructure devices.