Issue 12, 2024

Nature-inspired batteries: from biomaterials to biomimetic design strategies

Abstract

Nature has vast experience in optimising systems to perform adaptively to their environment. Bio-organisms are intrinsically dynamic: as they react to stimuli, their components work synergistically to achieve the appropriate response to the range of conditions of the environment they are in. Due to this singular specificity, achieved with exquisite tailoring of function and structure from the nanoscopic to the macroscopic level, biological systems have been an inspiration not only for materials design but for many engineering-related applications, including energy storage devices, in particular batteries, which are covered in this review. Bioinspiration is explored as a tool to unlock new materials, hierarchical architectures, and chemistries to achieve specific functions that will be key to addressing the complex range of performance and sustainability requirements for future batteries. Many excellent examples of biomimicry and bioinspiration can be found in the literature, yet the conceptualization of fully biomimetic batteries has not been accomplished. In this review we analyse the possibilities by which batteries could expand beyond structure replication of individual materials, components or chemistries found in nature and provide a broader perspective on their integration. We place battery systems at the interface between green chemistry, nanotechnology, and bioengineering to analyse their basic requirements and contrast how nature has achieved these needs in biological systems.

Graphical abstract: Nature-inspired batteries: from biomaterials to biomimetic design strategies

Article information

Article type
Tutorial Review
Submitted
03 Feb 2024
Accepted
02 May 2024
First published
08 May 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Green Chem., 2024,26, 6944-6958

Nature-inspired batteries: from biomaterials to biomimetic design strategies

S. Tagliaferri, L. Gaspard, H. Au, C. Mattevi, M. Titirici and M. Crespo-Ribadeneyra, Green Chem., 2024, 26, 6944 DOI: 10.1039/D4GC00638K

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