Bioinspired Materials Science and Engineering

1Biotemplating Principles

Cordt Zollfrank* and Daniel Van Opdenbosch

Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany

1.1 Introduction

Materials science has several frontiers such as the quest for bottom‐up manufacturing in ever greater detail, alloying metals for improved mechanical or electrical properties, doping semiconductors for improved energy efficiency, nanoparticle synthesis for imaging and sensing applications or creating optical computing devices with improved information density and processing speeds. In human technology, this usually involves changing the material structure on a limited number of hierarchical levels, for example, by changing the chemical composition and grain structure. However, as we will explore in this chapter, this is not the only possible strategy to create functionalities.

Also, an observable trend has emerged, toward materials whose properties are prefixed “self‐”: Self‐healing, self‐cleaning or self‐assembly are desirable properties in materials covering a wide range of intended applications [1–5]. They share a common property: Passivity, i.e. an action that does not require much or any external stimulus or energy input. We are moving toward integrated passive systems, such as passive houses, cooling systems, sensors, etc. They all have the same underlying motivation: costs of fossil fuel will rise, owing to increased demand, slowly depleting deposits, and the self‐imposed restraint due to the consequences of man‐made climate change. Further, ...