Bioinspiration as Tools for the Design of Innovative Materials and Systems Bioinspired Piezoelectric Materials: Design, Synthesis, and Biomedical Applications

Bioinspiration represents the phenomenon of utilizing principles from nature to stimulate research in various disciplines, including chemistry, biology, physics or engineering, and develop modern technology. For many decades, research in science and technology has been greatly inspired by nature in terms of millions of well-coordinated and engineered processes, materials, and designs. Biomaterials are optimized tools that are skillfully designed by nature to flourish in the challenging environment. The inherent biocompatibility, high biodegradability and affinity to easily integrate with natural systems make biomaterials attractive systems for investigating for a large range of applications starting from drug delivery platforms, tissue engineering, medical implants, biosensors. Besides many other characteristics, piezoelectricity, the phenomenon to generate electrical signal in regards to mechanical deformation, has been identified recently in many biomaterials that build the human body or natural systems. Yet, the origin and significance of piezoelectricity in diverse biomaterials have not fully understood; however, these are assumed to play crucial function in the health conditions. In this chapter, we systematically discuss the recent development of biopiezoelectric materials based on natural or nature-inspired biomolecules—design strategy, synthesis, integration into biopiezoelectric platforms, and finally, their deployment in the latest biomedical applications has been emphasized.