Complex Materials, Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
Adv Mater. 2012 Sep 25;24(37):5024-44. doi: 10.1002/adma.201201471. Epub 2012 Jul 13.
Biological composites have evolved elaborate hierarchical structures to achieve outstanding mechanical properties using weak but readily available building blocks. Combining the underlying design principles of such biological materials with the rich chemistry accessible in synthetic systems may enable the creation of artificial composites with unprecedented properties and functionalities. This bioinspired approach requires identification, understanding, and quantification of natural design principles and their replication in synthetic materials, taking into account the intrinsic properties of the stronger artificial building blocks and the boundary conditions of engineering applications. In this progress report, the scientific and technological questions that have to be addressed to achieve this goal are highlighted, and examples of recent research efforts to tackle them are presented. These include the local characterization of the heterogeneous architecture of biological materials, the investigation of structure-function relationships to help unveil natural design principles, and the development of synthetic processing routes that can potentially be used to implement some of these principles in synthetic materials. The importance of replicating the design principles of biological materials rather than their structure per se is highlighted, and possible directions for further progress in this fascinating, interdisciplinary field are discussed.
生物复合材料利用弱但易于获得的构建块，通过精心设计的层次结构，展现出了优异的机械性能。将这些生物材料的潜在设计原理与合成体系中丰富的化学知识相结合，可能会促使具有前所未有性能和功能的人工复合材料的诞生。这种受生物启发的方法需要识别、理解和量化自然设计原理，并在合成材料中进行复制，同时考虑到较强人工构建块的固有特性和工程应用的边界条件。在本进展报告中，突出强调了为实现这一目标而需要解决的科学和技术问题，并介绍了近期为解决这些问题所做出的研究努力。这些研究包括对生物材料不均匀结构的局部特性进行分析，对结构-功能关系的研究以帮助揭示自然设计原理，以及开发潜在可用于在合成材料中实现其中部分原理的合成加工方法。本报告强调了复制生物材料设计原理而非其结构本身的重要性，并讨论了在这个引人入胜的跨学科领域中进一步发展的可能方向。
