Bioinspired Materials for Energy Storage

Abstract

improving the flexibility and adaptability based on the concepts of bioinspired structures, bioinspired synthesis, bioinspired functionalization, and bioinspired integration. For the studies on the natural species from the point of view of materials and chemistry, the research primarily focuses on three aspects: the real-time observation on the unique phenomena (e.g., drop condensation and water repelling), the in-depth examination on the constitutional structures (e.g., multiscale micro-/nano-structures and inorganic/ organic hybrids), and the comprehensive understanding on the functional mechanisms (e.g., nerve conduction and preys capture). For example, as one of most studied natural structures, nacre, a brickand-mortar structure composed of brittle inorganic calcium carbonate (95 vol%) and soft organic chitin and proteins (5 vol%), exhibits extraordinary tolerance and fracture toughness, which offers us inspirations on designing strong but tolerant materials from conventional weak and brittle raw materials. [8] The studies on the unique properties and structures with an understanding on the structure-property-functionality relationship of the natural species are a basic prerequisite for the design of bioinspired artificial materials and systems. Different to biomaterials that are made from either natural or synthetic materials for interacting with biological systems and primarily targeted for direct medical application or therapeutic or diagnostic purposes, bioinspired materials are artificial functional or engineering materials that are rationally designed by learning from the inspiring structural or functional features of the natural creatives or species for the applications as advanced materials in mechanical enhancement, chemical reactions, sensing, healthmonitoring, etc.On the other hands, to well design the bioinspired materials, omni-directional knowledge on the on-demand synthesis, hierarchical ordering organization, and intrinsic chemical/ physical properties of the building blocks is highly required. Specifically, a bioinspired structure is expected to bring about new bioinspired functionalities from the bioinspired structures. Therefore, to bridge the link between the structures and the functionalities, the capacity to synthesize the bioinspired materials with desired morphology and multiscale ordering is essential and crucial. For example, as one typical wide-gap inorganic material, ZnO has been employed in various applications ranging from optical material to building material. The conventional forms of ZnO in either powders or coatings only display the colors of white or colorless. However, if self-assembly the Nature offers a variety of interesting structures and intriguing functions for researchers to be learnt for advanced materials innovations. Recently, bioinspired materials have received intensive attention in energy storage applications. Inspired by various natural species, many new configurations and components of energy storage devices, such as rechargeable batteries and supercapacitors...

Bioinspired Robust Mechanical Properties for Advanced Materials

“…Inspired by these elements in nature, researchers have endeavored to develop novel artificial bioinspired materials mimicking the surface geometry and/or chemistry for applications in self-cleaning coatings, super-adhesive fibers, optoelectronics, energy conversion and storage devices, and antivirus coatings. [10][11][12][13][14][15] For most engineered materials, mechanical properties are critical in terms of high strength, lightweight, and high stiffness acting as a driving force to investigate the remarkable material aspects of nature. Nature is a library of great fauna and flora, which has evolved with mechanically robust parts or organs to meet the functionality needs of strong, tough, and sharp qualities, and has inspired the researcher to design stronger and tougher materials.…”

Approaches to construct high-performance Mg–air batteries: from mechanism to materials design

“…Among them, nanomaterials can provide a broad platform for the discovery of electrode materials. 236 For example, we anticipate the use of single crystal alloy anodes for improving corrosion resistance and metal-organic framework cathodes for boosting reaction kinetics. And the adoption of advanced fabrication methods will contribute to novel and high-performance materials.…”

Biologically Assisted Construction of Advanced Electrode Materials for Electrochemical Energy Storage and Conversion

“…[192][193][194][195][196] Most works share the same routine of constructing fast charge/mass transport channels with high accessible surface areas for achieving high and stable capacitances. [197] For example, a bioinspired leaves-onbranchlet carbon architecture was constructed by utilizing CNTs as branchlets and graphene petals (GP) as leaves. [198] The hierarchical CNTs/GP micro-conduits exhibited great efficiencies on transporting electrons and electrolyte.…”