Bioinspired Polymers

Abstract

Nature has always been a font of inspiration for scientists. Biological systems have an amazingly wide spectrum of different ordered structures that show sophisticated and efficient functions. Inspiring either from natural biomaterials functions or structure, different classes of high performance polymeric materials have been developed (hi‐tech adhesives, self‐healing composites, dynamic lenses, synthetic polypeptides, etc.) with applications ranging from aerospace industry to drug delivery and artificial motion. After a rapid discussion of the most important bioinspired polymers, our attention in this review has been focused on biomimetic polymers with biomedical applications. A first section is dedicated to self‐assembling systems such as block copolymers and protein‐like polymers, whose functioning is based on supramolecular interactions. The second part is related to biomimetic molecular machines able to convert chemical energy into mechanical work, inspiring from biological machineries both at the microscopic level (cell trafficking and metabolism) and at the macroscopic scale (mammalian muscles and invertebrates motion).