Opportunities and Challenges of Biomimicry in Adhesives R&D
Though bioinspired approaches to adhesive R&D often lead to great improvements in the lab, translating these sophisticated chemistries to commercial scale is a considerable challenge.
Highly sophisticated and engineered designs found in nature continue to astound scientists and engineers. Biomimicry is the science of copying a design discovered in nature and applying it to the world of chemistry, material science, and engineering in order to offer improved products with optimized functionality.
With the host of diverse biomaterials produced by an estimated 6.5 million species on land and 2.2 million species in the oceans, the biomimicry toolkit that man has to play with is, for all practical purposes, limitless. The superior designs discovered in nature have inspired many research programs from around the world, both at the university and commercial levels. Reverse-engineering research efforts have led to improved product performance and functionality. The gecko, sandcastle worm, caddisfly, mussel, and sea cucumber are all species that have inspired new chemical approaches to creating adhesives with unique performance features.