Recent progress in bio-inspired electrospun materials

Abstract

Bio-inspired materials, of whose structures, properties or functions mimic those of natural materials, have provided solutions to many practical problems. While an increasing number of scientists are working to mimic those structures and properties found in nature and selected by evolutions, the complicated multiscale architecture in nature far exceeds the ability of traditional design and fabrication methods. During the past ten years, the electrospinning technique has been emerged as an effective approach to designing and fabricating bio-inspired materials. In this review, we present the interplay between bio-inspired materials and the electrospinning technology, with an emphasis on the structure control to obtain optimized properties for real-world applications. We also provide an overview of recent development in the electrospinning of bio-inspired functional materials, and prospect the next-generation electrospun membrane’ materials in liquid gating systems, and their potential applications for membrane separation, flexible wearable electronics, and 4D printing, etc.