Crystal orientation of non-magnetic materials by imposition of a high magnetic field

From the view point of learning from the nature, the controlling of crystal orientation is accounted to be a major subject for materials processing. This paper reviews the researches on the crystal orientation by use of a high magnetic fieldand belongs to the category of researches for mimicking structures, namely the crystal orientation, which nature or livingbodies are forming. Regarding to the crystal orientation, several methods such as unidirectional solidification and epitaxial growth and so on have been developed hitherto. On the other hand the magnetization force that is familiar with the force to attract iron to a magnet, has been recognized to be effective even in non-magnetic materials when those are placed under a high magnetic field, which has become rather conveniently available by developing superconducting technologies in these days. In this paper, main results obtained when the imposition of a high magnetic field was accompanied to several materials processing such as electrodeposition, vaperdeposition, solidification, baking, slip-casting and precipitation, arereviewed from the view point of crystal orientation of non-magnetic materials.     

Crystal orientation of non-magnetic materials by imposition of a high magnetic field

From the view point of learning from the nature, the controlling of crystal orientation is accounted to be a major subject for materials processing. This paper reviews the researches on the crystal orientation by use of a high magnetic field and belongs to the category of researches for mimicking structures, namely the crystal orientation, which nature or living bodies are forming. Regarding to the crystal orientation, several methods such as unidirectional solidification and epitaxial growth and so on have been developed hitherto. On the other hand the magnetization force that is familiar with the force to attract iron to a magnet, has been recognized to be effective even in non-magnetic materials when those are placed under a high magnetic field, which has become rather conveniently available by developing super-conducting technologies in these days. In this paper, main results obtained when the imposition of a high magnetic field was accompanied to several materials processing such as electrodeposition, vaperdeposition, solidification, baking, slip-casting and precipitation, are reviewed from the view point of crystal orientation of non-magnetic materials.     

Nature-inspired calcium phosphate coatings: present status and novel advances in the science of mimicry

There has been a growing awareness in materials science that the adaptation of nature biological processes can lead to significant progresses in the controlled fabrication of advanced materials for an all range of applications. To learn from, understand and apply these natural processes for producing calcium phosphate coatings that are biologically similar to bone apatite, mimicking its properties, has driven the attention of many researchers in recent years. This article reviews the most relevant advances in this emerging research field, pointing out several approaches being introduced and explored by distinct laboratories.     

Nanomechanical testing of third bodies

During wear, materials undergo chemical and mechanical changes that lead to the formation of what are known as ‘third bodies’. Tribologists have long understood that third bodies have significant influence on the friction and wear performance of materials. However, the inhomogeneous nature of third bodies and how they form at the ‘buried interface’ of a sliding tribological contact has long made it difficult to fully characterize and study them. Recently, there have been significant advancements in nanomechanical testing such that researchers have begun to use these techniques to, for the first time, determine mechanical properties of third bodies. Coupling these measurements with high resolution electron microscopy and surface chemical analysis has finally given tribologists the ability to obtain the necessary data to understand and model third bodies and their connections to friction and wear. This review will present recent work on the topic of nanomechanical testing of third bodies while at the same time identifying the challenges and opportunities this research presents.     

The road from biology to materials

The study of biology at the molecular level may point to new directions in materials design and construction — not just mimicking biomolecular systems, but actually using biomolecules themselves to construct novel materials. Indeed, by taking this new fabrication route, significant and path-breaking achievements may be made by materials scientists and engineers.This article is intended to serve as a roadmap, linking basic molecular biology to materials science and engineering (MSE), so that more and more engineers can begin to integrate molecular biology into their work. Achievements of DNA- and protein-based engineering will not be reviewed. Rather, readers are directed to two recent reviews1, 2. Instead, I will focus on examples of the basic, as well as practical, knowledge of molecular biology that might be useful to material scientists. Emphasis will be placed on ‘materials building blocks’ and ‘molecular biology tool kits’ that can be employed for new materials design and synthesis.     

Bioinspired Materials: from Low to High Dimensional Structure

The surprising properties of biomaterials are the results of billions of years of evolution. Generally, biomaterials are assembled under mild conditions with very limited supply of constituents available for living organism, and their amazing properties largely result from the sophisticated hierarchical structures. Following the biomimetic principles to prepare manmade materials has drawn great research interests in materials science and engineering. In this review, we summarize the recent progress in fabricating bioinspired materials with the emphasis on mimicking the structure from one to three dimensions. Selected examples are described with a focus on the relationship between the structural characters and the corresponding functions. For one‐dimensional materials, spider fibers, polar bear hair, multichannel plant roots and so on have been involved. Natural structure color and color shifting surfaces, and the antifouling, antireflective coatings of biomaterials are chosen as the typical examples of the two‐dimensional biomimicking. The outstanding protection performance, and the stimuli responsive and self‐healing functions of biomaterials based on the sophisticated hierarchical bulk structures are the emphases of the three‐dimensional mimicking. Finally, a summary and outlook are given.     

Catechol‐Based Biomimetic Functional Materials

Catechols are found in nature taking part in a remarkably broad scope of biochemical processes and functions. Though not exclusively, such versatility may be traced back to several properties uniquely found together in the o‐dihydroxyaryl chemical function; namely, its ability to establish reversible equilibria at moderate redox potentials and pHs and to irreversibly cross‐link through complex oxidation mechanisms; its excellent chelating properties, greatly exemplified by, but by no means exclusive, to the binding of Fe³⁺; and the diverse modes of interaction of the vicinal hydroxyl groups with all kinds of surfaces of remarkably different chemical and physical nature. Thanks to this diversity, catechols can be found either as simple molecular systems, forming part of supramolacular structures, coordinated to different metal ions or as macromolecules mostly arising from polymerization mechanisms through covalent bonds. Such versatility has allowed catechols to participate in several natural processes and functions that range from the adhesive properties of marine organisms to the storage of some transition metal ions. As a result of such an astonishing range of functionalities, catechol‐based systems have in recent years been subject to intense research, aimed at mimicking these natural systems in order to develop new functional materials and coatings. A comprehensive review of these studies is discussed in this paper.     

Processing of non-ferromagnetic materials in strong static magnetic field

Static magnetic field processing of non-ferromagnetic materials has been of broad interest and been applied in such fields as drug delivery, colloid chemistry and engineering of materials containing particles. A ‘strong’ magnetic field refers to a ‘strong’ response from the manipulated material and can vary in definitions. The response is corresponding to a local interaction between the material and the local magnetic field, being influenced by the magnetic susceptibilities of the material and the surrounding/coated medium. By carefully designing the medium, a significantly ‘strong’ response from a weakly magnetic material can even be generated by a traditional magnet, i.e. magnetic flux density ∼0.01 T. Therefore, the ability to manipulate materials by using a magnetic field depends critically on the understanding of the principles of the magnetic properties of materials and their magnetic responses. This paper provides a critical discussion on the principles including magnetic field effect thermodynamics, magnetic energy, magnetic anisotropy and different magnetic forces during ’strong’ magnetic field processing of weakly magnetic materials (focusing on metallic materials). A series of case studies and the related magnetic field effect are subsequently integrated and discussed. Overall this review aims to provide a better understanding and efficient overview on the phenomenon principles in the field of magnetic field processing.     

An overview of smart technology

In recent years there has been a seemingly ever-increasing use of the synonymous adjectives ‘smart’ and ‘intelligent’ to describe a diverse range of materials, structures, systems and technologies.^1-4 The origin of this terminology can be dated to the early 1980s when researchers working mainly in the US, and funded predominantly from defence budgets, began to examine the potential of combining advanced materials and sensors with powerful and compact computers to produce futuristic systems able to monitor their operating environment in real time and respond appropriately. Public awareness of this technology was given an enormous boost by the prominence given to use of ‘smart’ munitions during the Gulf war. Various articles appearing in popular science journals^5–7 and broadsheet newspapers in the months following the successful conclusion of this conflict served to maintain interest and it became fashionable to examine the use of ‘smart’ technology in industrial applications far removed from those originally envisaged in aerospace and defence. Various dedicated university research groups were formed at around this time (among the first in the UK being the Smart Structures Research Institute at Strathclyde University), often bringing together academics who had been working on ‘smart’ technologies for several years without realising it! Over the last five years researchers working in most of the major industrial sectors have given at least some thought to how they might apply ‘smart’ technology, important areas being in transport, building, civil infrastructure, biomedicine, sport and leisure, power generation and oil, gas and petrochemical. Packaging has not been left out of this process, with the prospects for ‘intelligent packaging’ being assessed most notably by CEST and Pira International in a report prepared in 1992 under DTI funding.⁸ Interest in ‘smart’ packaging has been sustained over the four years since this pioneering study, with the focus of attention gradually shifting from abstract conjecture to practical application. Notwithstanding the attention now being devoted to all things ‘smart’, the underlying concepts are still only poorly understood in many quarters and the word must warrant some sort of prize for the proportion of times that it is inaccurately applied. This paper presents a systematic definition of ‘smart’ technology and goes on to review very briefly some of the major advances being made under this technological umbrella. The UK's Defence Research Agency (DRA), like its American counterparts, has been active in ‘smart’ technology from its earliest days and has, for obvious reasons, concentrated mainly on aerospace and defence applications. However, with the launch in April 1994 of the DRA's Structural Materials Centre (SMC), committed explicitly to promoting wealth creation via the dual (i.e. military and civil) use of technology, there has been a conscious effort to identify wider opportunities for the exploitation of the contributing ‘smart’ technologies. Some ideas relevant to packaging which are currently being developed in conjunction with the DRA's Packaging Authority are outlined, together with an invitation for interested companies to participate in various DRA-led joint development programmes. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

从低维到高维的仿生材料制备及其应用进展

经过数十亿年的进化,自然界中的生物材料表现出许多卓越的性质和独特的功能。这些生物材料通常是由生物体内的有限组分在温和条件下组装而成,其优异的性能在很大程度上来源于复杂的多级结构,例如含邻苯二酚单元的贻贝粘附蛋白具有普适的强粘附力,珠-线结构的蜘蛛丝具有优异机械性能和集水能力,空心结构的北极熊毛发具有隔热保温作用,规则微纳结构的蝴蝶翅膀显示多彩的颜色,梯度多孔结构的柚子皮具有优异的阻尼减震效果等。以自然界的设计原理为灵感制造人工材料在材料科学和工程领域受到了极大关注,过去数10年,这方面的研究成果不胜枚举。总结了仿生材料在结构仿生方面的研究进展,选取了几个从低维到高维尺度上的典型例子概述了仿生材料的结构和功能之间的关系。     

Progress of ecomaterials toward a sustainable society

This review paper provides an overview of research activities in Japan in the field of ecomaterials. Ecomaterials are the materials which are used in the life-cycle design of products aimed at reducing environmental impact. Ecomaterials research includes the fields of ‘materials containing less hazardous substances’, ‘materials with green environmental profiles’, ‘materials with a higher potential for recycling’, and ‘materials with higher resource productivity’. They are evolving from being an idealised concept to produce real solutions for materials selection. As part of this trend, multi-performance capability, as required for usage including processability, is becoming an important problem to be solved by materials scientists and engineers.     

‘Smart’ consumer goods

‘Smart’ technologies, which encompass both ‘smart’ materials and structures, are creating a sea-change in engineering practice. Their fusion of conventional structural materials with aspects of information technology, offerss the prospect of engineering systems which can sense their local environment, interpret changes in this environment and respond appropriately. Demonstrator projects exist world-wide exploring the range of possible applications for ‘smart’ technologies in sectors ranging from aerospace and civil engineering to automobile and marine. A common feature of such programmes is their use of relatively sophisticated technologies, examples including the use of fibre optic techniques for sensing and actuation based on functional materials such as piezoceramics, electro- and magnetostrictives and shape-memory alloys. The use of such advanced technologies is symptomatic of the strong technology push which has dominated the development of this field.     

轻质多孔材料与结构研究的最新进展(英文)

大力推进材料和装备的轻量化、减量化是实现节能减排、加快建设节约型社会的关键措施,是新世纪工程科技的发展方向。大至海洋平台、大飞机机身和动车组车体,再到日常生活中的车辆,乃至小电子散热器件等,轻量化和多功能化均成为其发展中重要一环。围绕相关特殊工况应用条件下的轻质材料与结构的设计和研究面临一系列挑战:质量轻、力学强度高、散热性能好、动力学性能和隔振、隔声性能可调等多功能要求,因此如何在现有的材料和结构基础上进一步减轻重量并获得更优良的综合性能是材料科学、固体力学、传热、声学、优化设计等诸多领域工作者面临的共同挑战。基于本课题组近5年来围绕"超轻多孔结构创新构型的多功能化基础研究"国家基础研究计划项目所开展的一系列工作,综述了国内超轻多孔材料与结构最新发展水平的研究成果,总结了具有特定或多功能化应用的这类新型轻质多孔材料多学科交叉研究的进展,包括材料制备,力学、热学和声学特性,以及无损检测及优化设计等。     

Application of Fracture Mechanics Concepts to Hierarchical Biomechanics of Bone and Bone-like Materials

Fracture mechanics concepts are applied to gain some understanding of the hierarchical nanocomposite structures of hard biological tissues such as bone, tooth and shells. At the most elementary level of structural hierarchy, bone and bone-like materials exhibit a generic structure on the nanometer length scale consisting of hard mineral platelets arranged in a parallel staggered pattern in a soft protein matrix. The discussions in this paper are organized around the following questions: (1) The length scale question: why is nanoscale important to biological materials? (2) The stiffness question: how does nature create a stiff composite containing a high volume fraction of a soft material? (3) The toughness question: how does nature build a tough composite containing a high volume fraction of a brittle material? (4) The strength question: how does nature balance the widely different strengths of protein and mineral? (5) The optimization question: Can the generic nanostructure of bone and bone-like materials be understood from a structural optimization point of view? If so, what is being optimized? What is the objective function? (6) The buckling question: how does nature prevent the slender mineral platelets in bone from buckling under compression? (7) The hierarchy question: why does nature always design hierarchical structures? What is the role of structural hierarchy? A complete analysis of these questions taking into account the full biological complexities is far beyond the scope of this paper. The intention here is only to illustrate some of the basic mechanical design principles of bone-like materials using simple analytical and numerical models. With this objective in mind, the length scale question is addressed based on the principle of flaw tolerance which, in analogy with related concepts in fracture mechanics, indicates that the nanometer size makes the normally brittle mineral crystals insensitive to cracks-like flaws. Below a critical size on the nanometer length scale, the mineral crystals fail no longer by propagation of pre-existing cracks, but by uniform rupture near their limiting strength. The robust design of bone-like materials against brittle fracture provides an interesting analogy between Darwinian competition for survivability and engineering design for notch insensitivity. The follow-up analysis with respect to the questions on stiffness, strength, toughness, stability and optimization of the biological nanostructure provides further insights into the basic design principles of bone and bone-like materials. The staggered nanostructure is shown to be an optimized structure with the hard mineral crystals providing structural rigidity and the soft protein matrix dissipating fracture energy. Finally, the question on structural hierarchy is discussed via a model hierarchical material consisting of multiple levels of self-similar composite structures mimicking the nanostructure of bone. We show that the resulting “fractal bone”, a model hierarchical material with different properties at different length scales, can be designed to tolerate crack-like flaws of multiple length scales.     

Recent Progress in Biomimetic Additive Manufacturing Technology: From Materials to Functional Structures

Nature has developed high‐performance materials and structures over millions of years of evolution and provides valuable sources of inspiration for the design of next‐generation structural materials, given the variety of excellent mechanical, hydrodynamic, optical, and electrical properties. Biomimicry, by learning from nature's concepts and design principles, is driving a paradigm shift in modern materials science and technology. However, the complicated structural architectures in nature far exceed the capability of traditional design and fabrication technologies, which hinders the progress of biomimetic study and its usage in engineering systems. Additive manufacturing (three‐dimensional (3D) printing) has created new opportunities for manipulating and mimicking the intrinsically multiscale, multimaterial, and multifunctional structures in nature. Here, an overview of recent developments in 3D printing of biomimetic reinforced mechanics, shape changing, and hydrodynamic structures, as well as optical and electrical devices is provided. The inspirations are from various creatures such as nacre, lobster claw, pine cone, flowers, octopus, butterfly wing, fly eye, etc., and various 3D‐printing technologies are discussed. Future opportunities for the development of biomimetic 3D‐printing technology to fabricate next‐generation functional materials and structures in mechanical, electrical, optical, and biomedical engineering are also outlined.     

25th Anniversary Article: Artificial Carbonate Nanocrystals and Layered Structural Nanocomposites Inspired by Nacre: Synthesis,Fabrication and Applications

Rigid biological systems are increasingly becoming a source of inspiration for the fabrication of next generation advanced functional materials due to their diverse hierarchical structures and remarkable engineering properties. Among these rigid biomaterials, nacre, as the main constituent of the armor system of seashells, exhibiting a well‐defined ‘brick‐and‐mortar’ architecture, excellent mechanical properties, and interesting iridescence, has become one of the most attractive models for novel artificial materials design. In this review, recent advances in nacre‐inspired artificial carbonate nanocrystals and layered structural nanocomposites are presented. To clearly illustrate the inspiration of nacre, the basic principles relating to plate‐like aragonite single‐crystal growth and the contribution of hierarchical structure to outstanding properties in nacre are discussed. The inspiration of nacre for the synthesis of carbonate nanocrystals and the fabrication of layered structural nanocomposites is also discussed. Furthermore, the broad applications of these nacre inspired materials are emphasized. Finally, a brief summary of present nacre‐inspired materials and challenges for the next generation of nacre‐inspired materials is given.     

Design of composite structures including delamination studies

Composite materials are increasing their use in structures used for road transportation vehicles. From car bodies to trucks, these materials are being more popular. This use is obliging designers to take care of topics different to the traditional ones already studied for aerospace applications. Design must be simplified and, what is even more important, commercial codes should be used to continue with the extension of the use of composite materials in non aerospace industry. One of the most important problems arising when dealing with finite element design of composite materials including delamination is the requirement of using huge computer resources to solve the three dimensional stress field in the vicinity of free edges, holes, changes of number of layers and similar discontinuities.

To solve this problem, there are some well known techniques as global-local approaches that can be used for designing with good results. From an engineering point of view, the problem is that they are not usually implemented in commercial finite element codes so that engineers can not use them for everyday calculations.     

Rational Design of Soft–Hard Interfaces through Bioinspired Engineering

Soft–hard tissue interfaces in nature present a diversity of hierarchical transitions in composition and structure to address the challenge of stress concentrations that would otherwise arise at their interface. The translation of these into engineered materials holds promise for improved function of biomedical interfaces. Here, soft–hard tissue interfaces found in the body in health and disease, and the application of the diverse, functionally graded, and hierarchical structures that they present to bioinspired engineering materials are reviewed. A range of such bioinspired engineering materials and associated manufacturing technologies that are on the horizon in interfacial tissue engineering, hydrogel bioadhesion at the interfaces, and healthcare and medical devices are described.     

Reliability of fiber-reinforced composite laminate plates

Many engineering structures ranging from aircrafts, spacecrafts and submarines to civil structures, automobiles, trucks and rail vehicles, require less weight and more stiff and strong materials. As a result of these requirements, the use of composite materials has increased during the past decades. In fact during the past five years, we have witnessed exponential growth in research and field demonstrations of fiber-reinforced composites in civil engineering. Manufacturers and designers have now access to a wide range of composite materials. However, they face great problems with forecasting the reliability of composites materials. Due to the differences among the properties of materials used for composites, manufacturing processes, load combinations, and types of environment, the prediction of reliability of composites is a very complex task. In this study, the reliability of fiber-reinforced composite laminate plates under random loads is investigated. The background of the problem is defined, the failure criterion chosen is presented, and the probability of failure is computed by Monte Carlo simulation.     

Magnetically Guided Self‐Assembly and Coding of 3D Living Architectures

In nature, cells self‐assemble at the microscale into complex functional configurations. This mechanism is increasingly exploited to assemble biofidelic biological systems in vitro. However, precise coding of 3D multicellular living materials is challenging due to their architectural complexity and spatiotemporal heterogeneity. Therefore, there is an unmet need for an effective assembly method with deterministic control on the biomanufacturing of functional living systems, which can be used to model physiological and pathological behavior. Here, a universal system is presented for 3D assembly and coding of cells into complex living architectures. In this system, a gadolinium‐based nonionic paramagnetic agent is used in conjunction with magnetic fields to levitate and assemble cells. Thus, living materials are fabricated with controlled geometry and organization and imaged in situ in real time, preserving viability and functional properties. The developed method provides an innovative direction to monitor and guide the reconfigurability of living materials temporally and spatially in 3D, which can enable the study of transient biological mechanisms. This platform offers broad applications in numerous fields, such as 3D bioprinting and bottom‐up tissue engineering, as well as drug discovery, developmental biology, neuroscience, and cancer research.