DMREF: Biologically Inspired Optimized Materials And Technologies Transformed by Evolutionary Rules (BIOMATTER)

满足社会对技术创新日益增长的需求，并为21世纪能源效率、资源管理、技术发展、人类健康和世界安全等领域的重大全球挑战提供解决方案的材料，往往需要同时展示具有卓越性能的多种功能。在自然进化的过程中，大量的生物已经构思出了材料解决方案，这些解决方案在多个属性类别（包括力学、光学、驱动和化学）中表现出卓越的性能特征。因此，这些生物为研究形态、形态发生和材料成分对新兴材料性能的作用提供了有利的起点。该项目将探索分层材料结构、组成和形态发生之间的因果关系，以及一系列示范性生物系统中新兴功能之间的因果关系。这将有助于确定一套通用规则，指导21世纪多功能材料的设计和制造。本研究的灵感来自于这样一种愿景：理解自然界最优秀的多任务艺术家使用的材料解决方案和设计标准，结合新颖的分析和计算材料进化工具，可以深入了解多功能材料的功能协同作用和权衡，并产生革命性的仿生材料平台。研究小组建议通过对真正多功能性的多方面材料参数相互作用的分析和计算分析，研究分层材料结构、组成和形态发生与一组示范性生物系统中新出现的特性之间的因果关系。基于在生物多功能材料、分析算法、计算例程和虚拟材料设计环境中流行的设计范式的知识，将设想这将允许将可能的材料解决方案的相空间表征为用户规定的性能标准的函数。这将使团队能够确定一套通用的规则来指导多功能新材料的设计和制造。特别强调的是确定机械功能、光学特性、驱动行为、流体和表面化学诱导效应之间的协同作用和权衡。基于这组设计规则，pi将使用最先进的增材制造、自组装和微制造策略制造材料原型。对这些原型的性能进行详细描述，并与母体生物系统进行比较，将能够评估设计规则的有效性和预测能力，并允许在迭代过程中对其进行改进。综上所述，pi建议使用以反馈为导向的“进化研究算法”来解决多功能材料设计的挑战，重点是实现能够在外部影响或用户输入的刺激下快速自主或控制功能变形的动态多功能材料。

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARYMaterials that satisfy society's increasing demand for technological innovation and that provide solutions to major global challenges of the 21st century in the fields of energy efficiency, resource management, technology development, human health, and world security are frequently required to simultaneously exhibit multiple functions with superior performance. Through the course of natural evolution, a plethora of organisms have conceived material solutions that show exemplary performance characteristics across multiple property classes, including mechanics, optics, actuation and chemistry. These organisms thus provide an advantageous starting point for studying the role of morphology, morphogenesis, and material composition on emerging material properties. The project will explore the causalities between hierarchical material architectures, composition and morphogenesis, and the emerging functionalities in a set of exemplary biological systems. This will enable the identification of a generalized set of rules for guiding the design and fabrication of multifunctional 21st century materials. TECHNICAL SUMMARYThis research is inspired by the vision that an understanding of the material solutions and design criteria used by Nature's finest multitasking artists in combination with novel analytical and computational materials evolution tools can provide insight into functional synergies and trade-offs in multifunctional materials and result in revolutionary biomimetic material platforms. The research team proposes to study the causalities between hierarchical material architectures, composition, and morphogenesis and the emerging properties in a set of exemplary biological systems by analytical and computational analysis of the multi-faceted material parameter interactions underlying true multifunctionality. Building on knowledge about design paradigms prevalent in biological multifunctional materials, analytical algorithms, computational routines, and virtual material design environments will be conceived that will allow the characterization of the phase space of possible material solutions as a function of user-prescribed performance criteria. This will permit the team to identify a generalized set of rules for guiding the design and fabrication of multifunctional new materials. The particular emphasis is on identifying synergies and trade-offs between mechanical functionalities, optical properties, actuation behavior, fluidics, and surface-chemistry induced effects. Based on this set of design rules, the PIs will fabricate material prototypes using state-of-the-art additive manufacturing, self-assembly, and microfabrication strategies. A detailed characterization of the performance of these prototypes and comparison to the parent biological system(s) will enable evaluation of the validity and prediction capabilities of the design rules and allow for their refinement in an iterative process. In summary, the PIs propose to tackle the challenges of multifunctional material design using a feedback oriented "evolutionary research algorithm" with focus on the realization of dynamic multifunctional materials capable of fast autonomous or controlled functional morphing stimulated by external influences or user input.