| Scope |
One of the ultimate goals of materials research is to be able to precisely control the 3D morphology, chemistry, crystallography, and other structural features in materials at multiple length scales, so as to achieve desired mechanical, optical, and other properties. However, many current manufacturing processes are not environmentally friendly and have a large carbon and energy footprint. Additionally, our ability to simultaneously control chemical and crystallographic characteristics of complex organized materials is very limited. Nature provides a valuable resource in the form of living organisms that have developed the ability to create complex and functional materials with nano/microstructures, such as mollusk shells, teeth, bones, and biophotonic structures. These materials often display hierarchical structures with regularity and coherence beyond the size of a single cell, and their microstructures resemble common structural motifs in engineering materials, including spherulites, dendrites, polygonal grains, laminated composites, foams, and lattices. By understanding the principles of morphogenesis that produce these structures, researchers can gain valuable insights for next-generation manufacturing of structural and functional materials.
This proposed Frontiers of Materials symposium will bring together internationally recognized researchers from diverse backgrounds such as biomineralization, mechanics, biophotonics, morphogenesis, and synthesis to discuss the latest progress in this area. The invited speakers will discuss recent advancement in revealing the morphogenesis principles for producing structural and functional materials and composites in organisms and developing novel experimental and computational approaches in utilizing these principles for material fabrication. By emphasizing the “processing” aspect instead of the traditional “structure-property” relationship in biological materials, the symposium will promote insightful discussions among various TMS communities, including structural materials, functional materials, biomaterials, material characterization, and processing. Ultimately, this proposed symposium will provide critical insights and point out new research opportunities for next-generation manufacturing, such as advanced 3D printing and precision synthesis. |