From bioinspired multifunctionality to mimumes

Abstract

Abstract:The methodologies of bioinspiration, biomimetics, and bioreplication are inevitably pointing to the incorporation of multifunctionality in engineered materials when designing ever more complex systems. Optimal multifunctionality is also the defining characteristic of metamaterials. As fibrous materials are commonly manufactured from a variety of source materials, mimumes--i.e., microfibrous multifunctional metamaterials--are industrially viable even today, as exemplified by mimumes of parylene C. The microfibrous morphology of mimumes will enhance surface-dominated effects in comparison to those evinced by bulk materials. Engineered BiomimicryThe laws of physics hold sway over every biological process just as surely and as completely as over every technological operation. Yet the modification of any biological feature in response to an altered environment leading to the emergence of a new multicellular species is a much lengthier affair than the development of a new product line--especially after the Industrial Revolution, and definitely in the last few decades. In the absence of a prescient selector, natural selection promotes the propagation of the genes of better-adapted mutants, a recognizably new species appearing after some large number of generations. In contrast, feeding on consumer research, technology managers function as prescient selectors to rapidly conceive, design, manufacture, and market improved products. Furthermore, even though the sprouting of a new taxon 1,2 still remains as much of an enigma as that of an entirely novel technoscientific product, the duration of the former is remarkably shorter than of the latter.Evolution in nature may be much slower than technological evolution, but the former enjoys the advantages of plenitude of mutation. No body of prescient selectors can afford to conduct a large number of experiments in the pursuit of a new or improved product. But numerous mutations arise in nature, albeit over long periods of time. Imparting either insignificant or no reproductive advantage, most mutations do not survive for long. Although proportionally few, the reproductively successful mutations may be regarded as the successful outcomes of a gigantic multidimensional matrix of experiments. Accordingly, sapient hominins have long been inspired by attractive outcomes and functionalities evident in plants and animals.Invisibility from predators provided to animals by skin coloration matched to their environment 3 must have led hominins in the hoary past to camouflage themselves in animal skins while either hunting animals or being hunted by rivals. Today's camouflage uniforms worn by both hunters and soldiers are biomimetic descendants of animal skins. 4 Self-medication by animals to either prevent or treat certain diseases 5,6 must have led medical specialists amongst early humans towards medicinal drugs readily available from natural resources.7 Bioprospecting continues even more systematically than in the past, 8 the isolation of medicinally effective compounds from the...

Temperature-dependent dynamic moduli of Parylene-C columnar microfibrous thin films

“…Parylene-C µFTFs also show promise as multifunctional materials [22,23]. Therefore, although comprehensive knowledge of the mechanical properties of µFTFs of Parylene C would be useful for these applications, only a preliminary report on just one columnar µFTF has been published as yet [24].…”

Approaches to analyzing multi-functional problems

“…For instance, the functionality of the skin serves as an example of multi-functionality found in nature. The skin (the mean) solves several functions such as it contain and protect the organism, it includes a variety of sensing elements and might serve as camouflage (Lakhtakia, 2015). In the present paper multi-functionality as a concept describes the situation where a single entity is used to realize more than one function.…”

Relative permittivity of bulk Parylene-C polymer in the infrared regime

“…[7,8] Although not a composite material, Parylene-C should therefore be regarded as a multifunctional material. [9][10][11] The fabrication of nanofibrous [12] and microfibrous [13,14] thin films of Parylene-C has given a further boost to its multifunctionality.…”

“…Previously, our research group has determined the surface energy of bulk Parylene-C polymer, [15] and studied the water wettability, crystallinity, and some elastodynamic properties of microfibrous Parylene-C. [16] In contrast to a fibrous film which can be regarded as a composite material wherein fibers of the polymer are dispersed in air, a bulk film is homogeneous. With an eye toward the use of bulk Parylene-C polymer as a material for infrared (IR) applications, particularly for photonic crystals, [11] we decided to experimentally determine the complex-valued relative permittivity ε r (ν) of bulk Parylene-C polymer as a function of the frequency ν in the 15-149 2 C. Chindam et al…”