Bio-Inspired functional materials templated from nature materials

Abstract

Inspired from nature materials with hierarchical structures, many functional materials are developed based on the templating synthesis method. This review will introduce the way to fabricate novel functional materials based on nature bio-structures with a great diversity of morphologies, in State Key Lab of Metal Matrix Composites, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. We present the idea and methods of obtaining multi-scale porous materials by using wood, agricultural wastes and butterfly wing scales as bio-templates. We change their original components into our desired materials withoriginal morphologies faithfully kept. Properties of the obtained materials are studied in details. Based on these results, we discuss the possibility of using these materials in light control, environment issues, andsolar energy conversion field. This work has great values on the development on structural function materials in the near future. © 2010 Hosokawa Powder Technology Foundation.