Complex Materials, Department of Materials, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich (Switzerland).
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2015 Mar 9;54(11):3400-16. doi: 10.1002/anie.201410139. Epub 2015 Jan 12.
Numerous examples of material systems that dynamically interact with and adapt to the surrounding environment are found in nature, from hair-based mechanoreceptors in animals to self-shaping seed dispersal units in plants to remodeling bone in vertebrates. Inspired by such fascinating biological structures, a wide range of synthetic material systems have been created to replicate the design concepts of dynamic natural architectures. Examples of biological structures and their man-made counterparts are herein revisited to illustrate how dynamic and adaptive responses emerge from the intimate microscale combination of building blocks with intrinsic nanoscale properties. By using top-down photolithographic methods and bottom-up assembly approaches, biologically inspired dynamic material systems have been created 1) to sense liquid flow with hair-inspired microelectromechanical systems, 2) to autonomously change shape by utilizing plantlike heterogeneous architectures, 3) to homeostatically influence the surrounding environment through self-regulating adaptive surfaces, and 4) to spatially concentrate chemical species by using synthetic microcompartments. The ever-increasing complexity and remarkable functionalities of such synthetic systems offer an encouraging perspective to the rich set of dynamic and adaptive properties that can potentially be implemented in future man-made material systems.
自然界中存在许多与周围环境动态相互作用和自适应的材料系统实例，从动物毛发机械感受器到植物自塑形种子散布单元，再到脊椎动物的骨骼重塑。受这些迷人的生物结构的启发，人们创造了广泛的合成材料系统，以复制动态自然结构的设计理念。本文重新审视了生物结构及其人造对应物的例子，以说明动态和自适应响应如何从具有固有纳米级特性的构建块的微观组合中产生。通过使用自上而下的光刻方法和自下而上的组装方法，已经创建了受生物启发的动态材料系统，1）利用毛发启发的微机电系统感知液体流动，2）利用类似植物的异构结构自主改变形状，3）通过自调节自适应表面在体内环境中产生影响，以及 4）通过使用合成微隔室来空间浓缩化学物质。这些合成系统的复杂性不断增加和显著的功能为未来人造材料系统中可能实现的丰富的动态和自适应特性提供了令人鼓舞的前景。
