Bioinspired Additive Manufacturing of Hierarchical Materials: From Biostructures to Functions

Throughout billions of years, biological systems have evolved sophisticated, multiscale hierarchical structures to adapt to changing environments. Biomaterials are synthesized under mild conditions through a bottom-up self-assembly process, utilizing substances from the surrounding environment, and meanwhile are regulated by genes and proteins. Additive manufacturing, which mimics this natural process, provides a promising approach to developing new materials with advantageous properties similar to natural biological materials. This review presents an overview of natural biomaterials, emphasizing their chemical and structural compositions at various scales, from the nanoscale to the macroscale, and the key mechanisms underlying their properties. Additionally, this review describes the designs, preparations, and applications of bioinspired multifunctional materials produced through additive manufacturing at different scales, including nano, micro, micro-macro, and macro levels. The review highlights the potential of bioinspired additive manufacturing to develop new functional materials and insights into future directions and prospects in this field. By summarizing the characteristics of natural biomaterials and their synthetic counterparts, this review inspires the development of new materials that can be utilized in various applications.

Automated summary

Throughout billions of years, biological systems have developed sophisticated hierarchical structures to adapt to changing environments. By mimicking this natural process, additive manufacturing offers a promising approach to creating new materials with properties similar to biological materials. This review provides an overview of natural biomaterials, highlighting their chemical and structural compositions at different scales, as well as the mechanisms behind their properties. It also discusses the designs, preparations, and applications of bioinspired multifunctional materials produced through additive manufacturing at various scales. By summarizing the characteristics of both natural and synthetic biomaterials, this review inspires the development of new materials for various applications.