From Nature to Engineering: Bio-mimetic and Bio inspired Materials

There is a growing need for the development of new light-weight structural materials with high strength and durability that are low-cost and recyclable. Nature has evolved efficient strategies, exemplified in the crys-tallized tissues of numerous species, to synthesize materials that often exhibit exceptional mechanical prop-erties. These biological systems demonstrate the ability to control nano- and microstructural features that significantly improve the mechanical performance of otherwise brittle materials. In this work, we investi-gate a variety of organisms, specifically, the hyper-mineralized combative dactyl club of the stomatopods (Figure 1), a group of highly aggressive marine crustaceans[1], and the heavily crystallized radular teeth (Figure 2) of the chitons, a group of elongated mollusks that graze on hard substrates for algae[2,3]. In addi-tion, we will discuss developments in multifunctional biological structures. From the investigation of struc-ture-property relationships in these unique organisms using modern chemical, morphological, and mechani-cal characterization techniques, we are now developing and fabricating cost-effective and environmentally friendly engineering composites with impact resistance and synthesizing biologically inspired nanomaterials for energy conversion and storage.

Biography:
David Kisailus, University of California at Santa Barbara (Ph.D. 2002). University of California at Santa Barba-ra (Postdoc. 2002-2005), Research Scientist at HRL Laboratories (2005-2007); Assistant Professor (2007-2012), Associate Professor (2012-2015), Professor (2015-) of The University of California at Riverside. The Winston Chung Endowed Chair of Energy Innovation (2011-present), Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (2014-); Project Leader of Multi University Research Initiative on Bio-inspired Materials (2014-present). Member of UNESCO Chair in Materials and Technologies for Energy Conversion, Saving and Stor-age (MATECSS). Research interests: Biomimetics and bio-inspired materials synthesis of semiconducting materials, structure-functional analyses and biomimetic demonstration of impact and abrasion resistant materials, solution phase precursor synthesis of ceramic and semiconducting materials for photocatalytic membranes, nanoparticle synthesis and self-assembly.