Within batteries there is a drive to improve the energy and power densities, the cost base and the environmental footprint. Biomimetic chemistry is inspired by nature and can include materials and structures that mimic biological processes. As such it can be applied to every aspect and layer of the chemistry within a battery cell.
Tagliaferri et al [2] formulated the seven open questions:
- Is it possible to synthesise efficient materials, comparable to those currently industrialised, from renewable resources and unwanted natural by-products with a high atom economy?
- How can we find structural and functional bioinspiration to reach an equilibrium between ion transport and electron conduction in electrodes, whilst accommodating dynamic mechanical strain exerted on components and interfaces during cycling?
- Is it possible to copy biochemical functionalities found in natural tissues to enable self-healable electrodes?
- Can we generate biomimetic interphases or membranes that can conduct a specific ion while disabling the passage of counterions and solvents towards the electrodes to passivate electrochemical interfaces?
- Can we control the electrochemical interfaces while controlling the elastic properties of the membrane?
- Could we decrease the number of materials and elements that we rely on for energy storage systems?
- Can we enable smoother recycling and reusing schemes using bioinspiration?
They also see that to date the application of Biomimetics in batteries has been applied to single components, mostly electrodes and electrolytes.
Xu et al [1] suggest a unified three-part framework for biomimetic electrolytes:
- SEI-mimetic
- antifreeze-protein-mimetic
- ion-channel-mimetic
Corresponding to three mechanistic strands:
- water activity regulation
- interfacial mechanics
- sub-nanometer transport
References
- Xu, Haoshen, Haoqi Yang, Dawei Sha, and Xu Dong. 2025. “Review of Biomimetic Engineering in the Electrolyte for Aqueous Batteries” Materials 18, no. 18: 4356
- Stefano Tagliaferri, Louis Gaspard, Heather Au, Cecilia Mattevi, Maria-Magdalena Titirici, Maria Crespo-Ribadeneyra, Nature-inspired batteries: from biomaterials to biomimetic design strategies, Green Chemistry, Volume 26, Issue 12, 2024