What Is Biomimetics?
“The study of the formation, structure, or functions of biologically produced substances and materials (as enzymes or silk) and biological mechanisms and processes (as protein synthesis or photosynthesis) especially for the purpose of synthesizing similar products by artificial mechanisms which mimic natural ones.”
some of the most important biomimetic textiles innovations, among which fibrous structures, multifunctional surfaces, thermal insulating materials, and structurally coloured materials are mentioned.
Biomimmetics in textiles
Nature is an extremely vast database of structures and mechanisms that proved to be clearly superior to those man-made. There are numerous examples of fibrous structures, multifunctional materials, thermal insulating materials, structural colours, and many others that can serve as sources of inspiration for future sustainable textiles. In many ways, textiles offer unique opportunities to imitate nature. The base units of each textile structure at the most elementary level of the hierarchy (from nano to micro) are organic fibres, many of which are natural. In addition, like many natural functional surfaces, the textile surfaces also offer excellent opportunities for developing new functionality. All these allow an easier way to borrow the biomimetic principles of nature in textile field than in other industrial areas.
Fibrous structures of bamboo and wood, spiders and silk worm, pinecones, and even tendons (to mention just a few of them) led to the development of impressive textile structures. Superhydrophobicity, self-cleaning, and drag reduction are some of the functionalities that have been successfully integrated in textile products. Thermal insulation properties of duck feathers, penguins, and polar bears also inspired some clothing articles for cold weather. The aesthetic aspect could not be neglected, especially when it comes to clothing, so researchers turned their attention to beautiful vivid colours of butterflies, birds, and beetles. Their structural colours conducted to fascinating textile fibres and fabrics that do not require dying to display a colour, their appearance being due to light phenomena at submicron level of their architecture. Seeing the increasing number of papers related to Biomimetics topic, it is more than clear that it presents a high potential for future development of engineering, in general, and of textiles, in particular.
