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Elastic Energy Storage in Biological Materials: Internal Stresses and Their Functionality
Shahrouz Amini1,2, Paul Zaslansky3, Boaz Pokroy4
1Department of Biomaterials, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, 14476, Potsdam, Germany.
Advanced Materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)
|July 29, 2025
Summary
Biological materials store elastic energy through chemo-mechanical processes, enabling functions like shape change and locomotion. This review explores how this stored energy is generated, stored, and released for diverse biological applications.
Area of Science:
- Biophysics
- Materials Science
- Biomechanics
Background:
- Biological materials are often heterogeneous and anisotropic, with components possessing distinct elastic properties.
- Chemo-mechanical energy conversion (e.g., water absorption, crystallization) generates forces in biological structures.
- Strain misfits from these processes create internal stresses, storing elastic energy crucial for biological functions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To survey the fundamental aspects of internally generated elastic energy in biological materials.
- To highlight the significance of elastic energy storage for various biological functions.
- To review how biological systems generate, store, and release elastic energy.
Main Methods:
- Review of diverse biological materials including plant seed pods, crustacean appendages, ballistic tongues, and mineralized tissues.
- Analysis of phenomena like atomic/protein incorporation, protein conformational changes, phase transformation, and osmotic pressure.
- Examination of energy storage and release mechanisms for functional implications.
Main Results:
- Elastic energy storage is vital for biological functions such as shape change, locomotion, predation, strengthening, toughening, and ballistic movements.
- Biological systems strategically manipulate phenomena like crystallization, protein conformation, and osmotic pressure to store elastic energy.
- These mechanisms act as "elastic energy batteries," facilitating efficient, evolutionarily adapted functionality through structure-based energy management.
Conclusions:
- Internally generated elastic energy plays a critical, yet underappreciated, role in biological material function.
- Understanding elastic energy storage provides insights into the design principles of advanced biological materials.
- This stored energy enables efficient and adaptive functionalities across a wide range of biological systems.
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