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Mimicking Nature implies the use of bio-inspired hierarchical designs to manufacture nanostructured materials. Such materials should be produced from sustainable sources ( e.g., biomass) and through simple processes that use mild conditions, enabling sustainable solutions. The combination of different types of nanomaterials and the implementation of different features at different length scales can provide synthetic hierarchical nanostructures that mimic natural materials, outperforming the properties of their constitutive building blocks. Taking recent developments in flow-assisted assembly of nanocellulose crystals as a starting point, we review the state of the art and provide future perspectives on the manufacture of hierarchical nanostructured materials from sustainable sources, assembly techniques, and potential applications.

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A new procedure based on switchable polarity solvents (SPS) was proposed for lipid extraction of wet algal samples or cultures, thereby circumventing the need for an energy intensive drying step and facilitating easy recovery of the lipids from the extraction liquid. Lipids were extracted by using N,N-dimethylcyclohexylamine (DMCHA) and recovered by adding CO2, thereby switching DMCHA into a hydrogen carbonate ammonium salt and resulting in the formation of a separate liquid lipid phase

There is great interest in developing conductive biomaterials for the manufacturing of sensors or flexible electronics with applications in healthcare, tracking human motion, or in situ strain measurements. These biomaterials aim to overcome the mismatch in mechanical properties at the interface between typical rigid semiconductor sensors and soft, often uneven biological surfaces or tissues for in vivo and ex vivo applications. Here, the use of biobased carbons to fabricate conductive, highly stretchable, flexible, and biocompatible silk‐based composite biomaterials is demonstrated. Biobased carbons are synthesized via hydrothermal processing, an aqueous thermochemical method that converts biomass into a carbonaceous material that can be applied upon activation as conductive filler in composite biomaterials. Experimental synthesis and full‐atomistic molecular dynamics modeling are combined to synthesize and characterize these conductive composite biomaterials, made entirely from renewable sources and with promising applications in fields like biomedicine, energy, and electronics.

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