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Organisms in nature have developed intricate adaptive mechanisms to sustain essential life activities. The development of novel materials has often benefited from the notion of mimicking the complex hierarchical architecture that imbues natural composites with enhanced properties.

 

For example, improvements to artificial systems are often bounded by the difficulty of simultaneously enhancing two mutually exclusive mechanical properties, such as strength and toughness. These difficulties are often addressed by natural systems through their microstructure, which allows them to display remarkable mechanical performance under extreme conditions.

 

By examining and learning how and why biological materials attain these advantageous mechanical functionalities, we can pave the way to the design and creation of new bioinspired synthetic materials that display unique and attractive combinations of mechanical properties. Within this context, the Bio-Inspired Materials Lab is an interdisciplinary research group focuses on the bioinspired design and fabrication of materials with enhanced mechanical performance, active color-texture modifications, energy efficiency, and self-healing properties, among others.