Bioinspired Composites: Hierarchical and Heterogeneous Bioinspired Composites-Merging Molecular Self-Assembly with Additive Manufacturing (Small 28/2017)

In article number 1700550, Martin Andersson and co-workers, report a new method to form multiscale, bioinspired composite materials by combining bottom-up molecular self-assembly and top-down additive manufacturing. The composites are ordered constructs with an organic-inorganic interpenetrating nanostructure aligned over centimeter length-scales, with structural features as small as 10 nm. The composites display a hierarchical structure, composition and crack-resist mechanics on similar length scales as biological materials like bone and the bone-cartilage composite.