Biomimetic and Bioinspired Materials: Synthesis and Applications

Dear Colleagues,

With billions of years of evolution, nature provides great guides for human to produce various materials and tools through mimicking the structures, functions, and properties of animals, plants, and microbes. The famous artist–scientist, Leonardo da Vinci, suggested that “Where nature finishes producing its own species, man begins, using natural things and with the help of this nature, to create an infinity of species.”, which proves the importance of natural biomimetism and bioinspiration towards the design and synthesis of artificial materials. Biomimetic and bioinspired synthesis methods offer potential green strategies to create functional nanomaterials by utilizing the unique nanostructures, functions, and properties of biomolecules and biopolymers. For example, biomolecular self-assembly provides a number of excellent precursor building blocks for bioinspired synthesis of nanomaterials with various dimensions; by using the mineralization functions of some biomolecules like peptides and proteins, bone-like materials have been produced with biomimetic mineralization and used for biomedical fields; and by using molecular recognition like antibody–antigen and molecule–aptamer interactions, a number of biomimetic materials-based, high-performance biosensors have been fabricated for the practical clinical analysis of diseases.

Compared to traditional methods, biomimetic and bioinspired synthesis provides a few advantages, such as milder reaction conditions, controllable structure, multiple functions, and higher biocompatibility. Therefore, biomimetic and bioinspired materials exhibited wide applications in materials science, analytical sciences, tissue engineering, biomedical engineering, nanodevices, energy and environmental science, and others.

This Special Issue is therefore dedicated to “Biomimetic and Bioinspired Materials: Synthesis and Applications” and it intends to welcome contributions on, but not limited to, the following subjects:

• Self-assembly of biomolecules and biopolymers to various materials
• Biomimetic and bioinspired synthesis methods and mechanisms
• Biomimetic mineralization
• Biomimetic metallization
• Characterizations of biomimetic/bioinspired materials
• Sensors and biosensors
• Tissue engineering
• Drug and gene delivery
• Bioimaging
• Energy materials
• Nanodevices

Dr. Gang Wei
Prof. Dr. Zhiqiang Su
Prof. Dr. Bora Garipcan
Guest Editors

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