Review on Recent Developments in Bioinspired-Materials for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Applications

Abstract

Nature has always inspired innovative minds for development of new designs. Animals and plants provide various structures with lower density, more strength and high energy sorption abilities that can incite the development of new designs with significant properties. By observing the important functions of biological structures found in nature, scientists have fabricated structures by bio-inspiration that have been proved to exhibit a significant improvement over traditional structures for their applications in the environmental and energy sector. Bio-fabricated materials have shown many advantages due to their easy synthesis, flexible nature, high performance and multiple functions as these can be used in light harvesting systems, batteries, biofuels, catalysis, purification of water, air and environmental monitoring. However, there is an urgent need for sensitive fabrication instruments that can synthesize bio-inspired structures and convert laboratory scale synthesis into large scale production. The present review highlights recent advances in synthesis of bio-inspired materials and use of hierarchical nanomaterials generated through biomolecular self-assembly for their use in removal of environmental contaminants and sustainable development.

Bio-inspired design trends for sustainable energy structures

“…Innovative thoughts have always been stimulated by nature to create new designs. Plants as well as animals offer a variety of structures having lower density, higher strength and high energy absorption that can inspire new design concepts with important characteristics [1,6,27,[29][30][31]. Bio-inspired structures have been demonstrated to offer a significant improvement over traditional counterparts for their applications in the energy sectors, by observing the critical functions of biological structures found in nature.…”

“…The application of biomimicry principles to renewable energy technologies, such as solar panels and wind turbines, has the potential to revolutionize the energy sector sustainably with unlimited design options. Improved efficiency and adaptability can make these technologies more competitive and widely adopted for user demand [11,[27][28][29]. 1294 (2023) 012044 IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1757-899X/1294/1/012044 9 3.1.3.…”

“…Likewise, the process of converting natural techniques into technological solutions for biomimetic designs may become a difficult interdisciplinary process [26,31,33]. By incorporating multiple kinds of mechanisms from many living things in search of superior solutions the design and implementation process complexity grows two three folds [29], [33][34]. Emulating natural systems requires expertise in biology, materials science, engineering, and other diverse disciplines.…”

“…Maintaining efficiency, structural integrity, and cost-effectiveness when scaling up can be a formidable hurdle. To maintain effectiveness and functioning while maintaining the natural system for renewable engineering design is quite challenging [29,33,[35][36].…”

“…This method addresses urgent environmental concerns while stimulating creativity and ingenuity by embracing the ideas of biomimicry, circular economy, and sustainable sourcing. Future developments in materials and manufacturing sustainability that will be advantageous to both people and the environment are on the horizon as we continue to explore the limitless potential of nature-inspired design [13,15,[27][28][29].…”