Bhushan, B

Coppens, M-O

English

UCL Discovery

MSDEEDITORIALCite this: DOI: 10.1039/d1me90037dDOI: 10.1039/d1me90037drsc.li/molecular-engineeringIntroduction to nature-inspired solutions forengineeringMarc-Olivier Coppens *a and Bharat Bhushan bNature holds a treasure trove of ideas tosolve challenging engineering problems.Biological systems had to evolve toaddress multiple objectives underconstraints. Biological materials andsystems typically need to satisfy manyfunctions simultaneously, such asscalability, robustness, and variousmechanical properties under static anddynamic conditions. In addition, theefficient use of materials and energyresources could be an existential questionfor an organism to survive. Similar goalsexist for many materials and systemsengineering problems, and increasinglyso, because of pressing sustainabledevelopment goals. Hence, it seems“natural” to look at nature for inspiration.Nevertheless, fundamentalmechanistic understanding is crucial toavoid the trap of narrow biomimicry.Copying nature will rarely achieve thedesired outcomes, as the context oftechnological problems often differsfrom that in biology, such as theavailable building blocks, practicalsynthesis and manufacturing methods,or environmental conditions, not toforget the socio-economic requirementsof technology. Hence, nature-inspiredsolutions for engineering requiregrounding in fundamentals, and asystematic design methodology that iscognisant of the applied context.Mol. Syst. Des. Eng.This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry and IChemE 2021Marc-Olivier CoppensMarc-Olivier Coppens has beenthe Ramsay Memorial Professorin Chemical Engineering at UCLsince 2012, after professorshipsat Rensselaer and TU Delft. He isthe Vice-Dean of Engineering(Interdisciplinarity, Innovation)and directs the Centre forNature-Inspired Engineering,which was granted EPSRC“Frontier Engineering” (2013)and “Progression” (2019)Awards. He is recognised forpioneering nature-inspiredchemical engineering (NICE) and a systematic nature-inspiredsolution methodology, where the fundamental mechanismsunderpinning desirable traits in nature are leveraged to accelerateinnovation. He is Fellow of the RSC, AIChE and IChemE,corresponding member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences(Germany), and Qiushi Professor at Zhejiang University.Bharat BhushanDr. Bharat Bhushan is anAcademy Professor (San Jose,CA), and has served as an OhioEminent Scholar, Howard D.Winbigler Professor, and Directorof the Nanoprobe Laboratory forBio- & Nanotechnology andBiomimetics at Ohio StateUniversity (Columbus, OH). Heholds two M.S., a Ph.D. inmechanical engineering, an MBA,and five honorary doctorates. Hisresearch interests includefundamental studies in theinterdisciplinary areas of bio/nanotribology/nanomechanics,nanomaterials characterization, scanning probe techniques,magnetic storage, bio/nanotechnology, nanomanufacturing,bioinspired liquid repellency, self-cleaning, anti-icing, anti-fouling,water harvesting and science and technology policy. He hasauthored 10 books and 900+ papers and holds 25 US and foreignpatents. He has previously worked for Mechanical Technology Inc.,SKF, and the IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA.aCentre for Nature-Inspired Engineering (CNIE),Department of Chemical Engineering, UniversityCollege London (UCL), Torrington Place, London,WC1E 7JE, UK. E-mail: m.coppens@ucl.ac.ukbNanoprobe Laboratory for Bio- & Nanotechnologyand Biomimetics (NLBB), The Ohio State University,201 W. 19th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio, 43210-1142,USA. E-mail: bhushan.2@osu.eduPublished on 09 November 2021. Downloaded by 668916 on 11/11/2021 12:16:47 PM. View Article OnlineView JournalMol. Syst. Des. Eng. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry and IChemE 2021This themed collection bringstogether 8 articles that discuss widelydifferent topics but are united in theirvision to gain insights fromfundamentals in natural, molecularsystems for the design and engineeringof novel functional materials anddevices. Some of the articles presentoriginal research, while other onesreview recent work, and two present afresh methodological perspective. Theidea of this themed collection arosethrough the 1st ECI Conference onNature-Inspired Engineering, held inCetraro, Italy, in 2019, organised by theGuest Editors, and where several of theauthors met and presented.In this issue, Goldfield and Coppens(DOI: 10.1039/D0ME00062K) introducea systematic nature-inspired solution(NIS) methodology to acceleratedevelopmental bioengineering, a newform of therapy that recapitulatesbiological development for repair. Thepaper merges the thinking thatunderpins the biomedical research intobio-inspired engineering at the HarvardWyss Institute and into nature-inspiredchemical engineering (NICE) and NIS atthe UCL Centre for Nature-InspiredEngineering (CNIE). It discusses thepotential of a NIS methodologicalframework through two recent medicalbreakthroughs that present tremendoushope to patients: retinal pigmentepithelium repair for age-relatedmacular degeneration, which leads toblindness, and recovery from paralysis-provoking spinal cord injuries.Certain animals and plants in thedesert can collect water from fogwithout energy input. How they achievethis could inspire solutions foraccessing fresh water in coastal deserts.Zheng and co-workers (DOI: 10.1039/D1ME00019E) discuss recent advancesin such biomimetic fog harvestingsystems, focusing on improving theirefficiency and large-scale fabrication.They learn from the multiscalestructural features of desert beetles andcactus thorns, and how droplets interactwith these structures, to develop fabricsand devices that emulate nature-inspired geometrical andphysicochemical properties to endowthem with similar fast water collection,transport, and removal.In their review on amine-assistedsilica synthesis methods, Manning et al.(DOI: 10.1039/D0ME00131G) note thatthe difficulty faced in replicating thecomplexity of naturally occurringbiosilica materials is partly due to a lackof “joined-up”, methodologicalresearch. They present a unifiedmechanistic interpretation of formationthat advances the understanding of thestructure–function relationshipsbetween amine additives and theultimate materials. This should enablethe design of more complex functionalmaterials, based on experiments andcomputations, from the molecular tothe production scale.Gurera and Bhushan (DOI: 10.1039/D0ME00099J) show how bioinspiredconical and triangular surfaces can beused to move gas bubbles, even againstgravity or buoyancy. This matters inapplications ranging from biomedicineand drag reduction for ships, toaeration in food production, watertreatment and surface cleaning. LikeZheng et al., they draw inspiration fromcacti and spider webs, although for gasbubbles rather than water droplets; thefundamental mechanism behind thebubble movement is the Laplacianpressure gradient inside the bubbles.Korley and co-workers (DOI: 10.1039/D1ME00043H) show how peptide–polyurea hybrid materials can beengineered to create hierarchicalstructures and thermo-responsive shapememory, influenced by the peptidesecondary structure (the ratio ofα-helices and β-sheets), through inter-and intra-molecular hydrogen bondingarrangements and microphase-separated morphology. The authors areinspired by spider silk and other naturalmaterials, where the tunable propertiesare driven by a similar modulation ofthe structural organisation. Smart,stimuli-responsive, functional materialscould be designed using these principlesby appropriate bio-inspired forcebalancing and structural organisation.S t achewicz (DOI : 10 . 1039 /D1ME00066G) discusses how lessonscould be learnt from microscopy studieson polar bear hair to design toughermaterials. Polar bear hair hasexceptional mechanical properties,thanks to energy dissipation and crackdeflection, in combination with superiorthermal insulation. Thesemultifunctional properties are inducedby the hair's multiscale structure.Malyuk and Ivanova (DOI: 10.1039/D0ME00052C) create adaptive liquidlenses that are actuated by a laser beamto modulate the thermocapillary andsolutocapillary forces, which can beconverging or diverging. The eye's liquidlens serves as a source of inspiration,due to its robustness and the extremesensitivity of the interfacial curvatureand the focal length to external stimuli.The authors create bio-inspired lensescontaining ethylene glycol, ethanol, orbenzyl alcohol. Their paper discussestwo effects that could impact thestability and ability to switch betweendifferent focal lengths, namely tiltingand evaporation due to heating. This isimportant for the practical, repeatedand stable use of the lenses in variousoptical devices.Fouling is a major issue hamperingindustrial membrane separations usedin water treatment and proteinseparations. Mohamed et al. (DOI:10.1039/D0ME00045K) show how thefouling of polyester membranes couldbe reduced by learning from theremarkable anti-fouling properties ofthe glomerular complex in kidneys.Here, hydrophilicity and negativelycharged polysaccharide chains lead to,respectively, a hydration layer andelectrostatic repulsion of foulants. Byemploying a systematic approach usingdifferent grafted polymers on polyestermembranes, the authors demonstratethat both hydrophilicity and chargeplay a role, with charge having thelargest impact.We hope that the breadth of subjectsin these articles may motivate readers toexplore the vast opportunities of nature-inspired engineering to acceleratediscovery and innovation in molecularsystems design and engineering – byfollowing a mechanistic, methodologicalapproach, rather than sheer imitation ofnature out of context.MSDEEditorialPublished on 09 November 2021. Downloaded by 668916 on 11/11/2021 12:16:47 PM. View Article Online

Introduction to nature-inspired solutions for engineering

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Introduction to nature-inspired solutions for engineering

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