Natural biological systems are constantly developing efficient mechanisms to counter adverse effects of increasing human population and depleting energy resources. Their intelligent mechanisms are characterized by the ability to detect changes in the environment, store and evaluate information and respond to external stimuli. Bio-inspired replication into manmade functional materials guarantees enhancement of characteristics and performance. Specifically, butterfly architectures have inspired the fabrication of sensor and energy materials by replicating their unique micro/nanostructures, light trapping mechanisms and selective responses to external stimuli. These bio-inspired sensor and energy materials have shown improved performance in harnessing renewable energy, environmental remediation and health monitoring. Therefore, this review highlights recent progress reported on the classification of butterfly wing scale architectures and explores several bio-inspired sensor and energy applications.

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Continuous development and advancement in modern detection technologies have increased the demand for multiband (e.g., visual and infrared) compatible camouflage. However, challenges exist in the requirements of incompatible structure resulting from the adaptation to different camouflage effects. This study is inspired by the light absorption structure of butterfly wing scales and demonstrates a porous anodic alumina/aluminum flake powder material prepared by a microscopic powder anodic oxidation technique for visual and infrared camouflage. The fabricated structures manipulate a compromise condition for visual camouflage by low reflectance (R̅ 400-800nm = 0.32) and dual-band infrared camouflage by low emission (ε ̅ 3-5μm = 0.081 and ε ̅ 8-14μm = 0.085). Further, the characteristic of short-range disorder in these bioinspired structures allows maintenance of the camouflage performance under omnidirectional detection (0−60°). This study provides new insight and a feasible method for coordinated manipulation of electromagnetic waves via bioinspired structural design and improved fabrication.

Development of next generation photocatalysts has consistently learnt from natural nanostructures evolution for their fabrication and application in persistent organic pollutants (POPs) elimination. Herein, we synthesized blue-colored oxygen vacant Bi2WO6-x...

The structural evolutions of the organisms during the development of billions of years endow them with remarkable thermal-regulation properties, which have significance to their survival against the outer versatile environment. Inspired by the nature, there have been extensive researches to develop thermoregulating materials by mimicking and utilizing the advantages from the natural organisms. In this review, the latest advances in thermal regulation of bioinspired microstructures are summarized, classifying the researches from dimension. The representative materials are described with emphasis on the relationship between the structural features and the corresponding thermal-regulation functions. For one-dimensional materials, wild silkworm cocoon fibers have been involved, and the reasons for unique optical phenomena have been discussed. Pyramid cone structure, grating and multilayer film structure are chosen as typical examples of two-dimensional bionics. The excellent thermal performance of the three-dimensional network frame structures is the focus. Finally, a summary and outlook are given.

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