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

材料的表面是至关重要的，因为它决定了其与环境潜在相互作用的各自应用的功能和特性。为了在一定限度内恢复或保持原有的功能，生物材料作为一种内在的能力能够发生变化和发展。天然材料和工艺为定制和设计新型材料和表面（也称为生物启发材料）提供了大量的解决方案，这些材料和表面有可能征服复杂的多变量环境和应用。我们的项目受到生物角色模型的启发，它们表现出适应性和动态的表面特性。提出的研究重点在于开发和表征柔性，自适应和可切换的功能基板，用于机械或液体相互作用。我们设想这些材料的制造使用对齐的天然纤维，如纤维素，用于开发应用生物学原理的工程材料。在这个项目中，我们将遵循三个方向：1)从粘液植物种子中探索天然垂直排列的纤维素纳米纤维阵列；2)基于生物源材料选择的各种合成路线（即纤维素纳米纤维）制造类似的纤维素纳米纤维阵列；3)结合显微镜技术和摩擦学方法来表征生物系统和具有增强粘合、摩擦和其他功能特性的生物启发人工材料的特性。具有自适应特性的响应性表面结构将由排列的纤维素纳米纤维通过定制的化学功能化产生，以实现自适应的润湿性、摩擦学性能和粘附性。我们提出的材料基于可再生资源，对环境无害，非常适合工业和社会的生物转化。

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.