Hydrothermal Synthesis of Spongin-Based Materials

The horny skeleton of some Demosponges is entirely constructed of fibers composed of protein-like material, termed spongin. This thermally, chemically and enzymatically resistant three-dimensional network of biocompatible fibers has been widely used since ancient Greece but nowadays it gains a renewed attention due to unique architectural, anastomosed design potentially attractive in the field of tissue engineering. In this chapter, the structural differences between commonly used chitin and spongin are discussed, some of the ambiguous aspects of spongin chemistry are explained, and its thermal properties in comparison to collagen and keratin are presented. Finally, the wide range of application of spongin is shown, also in terms of utilization in Extreme Biomimetics.