Biological materials by design

Abstract

In this topical review we discuss recent advances in the use of physical insight into the way biological materials function, to design novel engineered materials 'from scratch', or from the level of fundamental building blocks upwards and by using computational multiscale methods that link chemistry to material function. We present studies that connect advances in multiscale hierarchical material structuring with material synthesis and testing, review case studies of wood and other biological materials, and illustrate how engineered fiber composites and bulk materials are designed, modeled, and then synthesized and tested experimentally. The integration of experiment and simulation in multiscale design opens new avenues to explore the physics of materials from a fundamental perspective, and using complementary strengths from models and empirical techniques. Recent developments in this field illustrate a new paradigm by which complex material functionality is achieved through hierarchical structuring in spite of simple material constituents.

Molecular Modeling and Mechanics of Acrylic Adhesives on a Graphene Substrate with Roughness

“…As what has been shown in nature such as interface in nacre between mineral plate and suture of the bone. For layered composite materials such as the brick-and-mortar designs [3,36], a stronger interface in shearing means larger resistance in deformation, as well as larger energy dissipation during rupture. Considering these effects in composite design will contribute to both strength and fracture toughness of the composite and may eventually lead innovative composites with improved mechanics.…”

Molecular machines – a new dimension of biological sciences

“…These structural features are formed thanks to the hydrophobic/hydrophilic balance of involved components and their propensity for aggregation/dissociation [22,23]. Biological membranes and cytoskeleton are examples of such aggregates whose stability depends on the aqueous solubility of all their components [4,[24][25][26][27]. Cellular matrix of fibrous structures is continuously rearranged by workings of molecular machines and a combination of polymerization and dissociation processes [28][29][30].…”

“…They handle the genetic information, assist the protein folding process, and facilitate the transfer of information and matter in and out of the cell. They are also critical components of energy transformation and transduction processes, and finally they maintain the cellular architecture [27,28,33,[35][36][37].…”

“…The hydrolysis of these high-energy components causes a monomer conformation change resulting in aggregate disintegration [17]. The process cannot be repeated again without previous reloading of monomers with highenergy molecules [9,12,17,24,27,44]. A Brownian ratchet is a motor in which the motion is driven directly by thermal fluctuations and rectified, or biased, by Brought to you by | University of Georgia Libraries Authenticated Download Date | 6/22/15 3:13 PM chemical reactions.…”

“…Since large macromolecules cannot diffuse freely in the cytoplasm, any directional movement of intracellular structures is executed almost exclusively by means of an active transport whose directionality is possible thanks to the workings of molecular machines within the structured intracellular space [10,13,15,77,78]. However, there are experimental reports showing that the mass transport can occur inside the cell and between cells via membranous structures -nanotubes [27,79,80]. The molecular crowding and complex composition of the molecular system are necessary requirements for the functioning of any biological system, as postulated by Stuart Kauffman [81,82].…”