Biomimetics of Materials and Structures

Material properties are not only determined by the chemical composition but also the internal structure of a material. In the course of evolution, living organisms have developed numerous strategies to create functions by internal structures at many levels of hierarchy. This section is devoted to the generation and characterisation of new material classes by combining the degrees of freedom of hierarchical structuring inspired by nature. This section addresses both structure and function of natural materials and reports strategies for the translation of bioinspired concepts into functional engineering materials.