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Bioinspired Chiral Template Guided Mineralization for Biophotonic Structural Materials
Rui Xiong1, Wanlin Wu1, Canhui Lu1
1State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Polymer Research Institute of Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China.
Advanced Materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)
|October 8, 2022
Summary
Researchers developed a scalable method to create damage-tolerant Bouligand structural materials. These biomimetic composites offer tunable mechanics and switchable photonics, inspired by nature for advanced material applications.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Biomimetics
- Nanotechnology
Background:
- Nature offers biomineral design principles for advanced materials.
- Producing damage-tolerant Bouligand materials with biological photonics at scale is challenging.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop an efficient and scalable strategy for creating biomimetic materials with combined mechanical and photonic properties.
- To overcome the mutual exclusivity of these properties in synthetic materials.
Main Methods:
- Utilized an artificial molting strategy.
- Employed self-assembly of cellulose nanocrystals.
- Mineralized with amorphous calcium carbonate.
Main Results:
- Achieved biomimetic composites with tunable mechanics (strong/flexible to stiff/hard).
- Demonstrated ultrahigh stiffness (2 GPa) in a hydrated state, exceeding natural and synthetic benchmarks.
- Exhibited tunable chiral structural color and water-triggered switchable photonics.
Conclusions:
- The developed strategy enables scalable synthesis of resilient biophotonic structural materials in bulk.
- These materials possess a unique combination of mechanical resilience, tunable photonics, and hydroplasticity.
- Opens new avenues for creating advanced functional materials inspired by biological structures.
