Bioinspired composite materials from aligned cellulose nanofiber arrays with tailored surface functionalities

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The surface of a material is of fundamental importance, because it determines its function and properties for the respective application regarding a potential interaction with its environment. Biological materials are able to change and develop as an inherent capability in order to restore or maintain the original functionality within certain limits. Natural materials and processes offer a tremendous pool of solutions to tailor and design a novel class of materials and surfaces also known as bioinspired materials, which have the potential to conquer complex multi-variant environments and applications. Our project is inspired by biological role models, which exhibit adaptive and dynamic surface properties. The focus of the proposed research lies in the development and characterization of flexible, adaptive, and switchable functional substrates for mechanical or liquid interaction. We envision the fabrication of these materials using aligned natural fibers such as cellulose for the development of engineering materials applying biological principles. In this project, we will follow three directions: i) exploration of natural vertically-aligned cellulose nanofibre arrays from mucilaginous plant seeds, ii) fabrication of similar cellulose nanofiber arrays following various synthetic routes based on biogenic material choices, i.e. cellulose nanofibers, and iii) combining both microscopy techniques and tribological methods to characterize the properties of biological systems and biologically-inspired artificial materials with enhanced adhesive, frictional, and other functional properties. Responsive surface structures with adaptive characteristics will be generated from aligned cellulose nanofibers via a tailored chemical functionalization in order to achieve an adaptive wettability, tribological properties, and adhesion. Our proposed materials are based on renewable resources and are environmentally benign, which fits well to the biological transformation in industry and society.