Biologically inspired innovation: a review on structural materials and manufacturing methods

Several natural materials have demonstrated excellent mechanical performance by using abundant resources and friendly chemistry. Additionally, these materials have evolved to optimize weight and maximize strength and energy absorption at the macro, micro, and nanostructural level. Likewise, engineers still face challenges regarding the same issues. Therefore, this paper aims to identify current literature on structural materials and their manufacturing methods. In this sense, a review was conducted to assess this extent in local databases through a research question and boolean operators. Results were classified into four main categories: plastic, metals, ceramic-composite materials, and organism-oriented structural materials, and their mechanical properties (energy absorption, fracture toughness, stiffness) were discussed. The results of this study can be generalized and easily comprehended by scientists, innovators, researchers, and the general public. This review contains structural materials where mechanical properties enhancement is of vital importance. Finally, this study illustrates how bio-inspiration provides a powerful tool to tune mechanical properties in diverse materials through structural arrangement and no significant modification to constituent materials composition. Likewise, it addresses trends in manufacturing processing routes and their scalability to drive further innovation within the field.