Bio-Mimetic and Bio-Templating of Natural Materials

Material science plays a vital role in the improvement of advanced natural materials for the betterment of human life by providing emerging solutions to our day-to-day problems. Materials that are found in nature have special characteristics including stratified organization behavior, repeated architectures and nano-level structure capability. These characteristics make them good energy harvesters and excellent anti-reflectors, and they show super-hydrophobicity behavior and self-healing and self-cleaning properties. Keeping in mind the above facts and characteristics, this chapter highlights the major areas where bio-templated materials have been consistently used, along with future projections. The major areas include electricity generation through butterfly-inspired solar panels, self-cleaning building materials inspired by lotus leaves and the development of nature-inspired robots. This chapter basically investigates the structural effects and compositional utilization of bio-templated materials for day-to-day applications and to tackle industrial challenges too in a sustainable manner. It is hoped that the proposed study will produce a breakthrough in human development in a sustainable manner. This chapter will provide a bird’s-eye view of future products and processes inspired by nature and natural materials which could play an outstanding role in sustainable development for human comfort.