Scoping biology-inspired chemical engineering

Biology is a rich source of great ideas that can inspire us to find successful ways to solve the challenging problems in engineering practices including those in the chemical industry. Bio-inspired chemical engineering(Bio Ch E)may be recognized as a significant branch of chemical engineering. It may consist of, but not limited to, the following three aspects: 1) Chemical engineering principles and unit operations in biological systems; 2) Process engineering principles for producing existing or developing new chemical products through living ‘devices';and 3) Chemical engineering processes and equipment that are designed and constructed through mimicking(does not have to reproduce one hundred percent) the biological systems including their physical–chemical and mechanical structures to deliver uniquely beneficial performances. This may also include the bio-inspired sensors for process monitoring. In this paper, the above aspects are defined and discussed which establishes the scope of BioChE.

Technological Parameters and Design of Bionic Integrated Honeycomb Plates

We investigated an integrated manufacturing method to develop lightweight composite materials. To design the preparation process for the integrated honeycomb plates, the shear and compressive mechanical properties of the corresponding composite materials were also investigated. The results indicate that these composite materials, with two types of resins reinforced by short basalt fibers, exhibit obvious toughness, particularly in their compressive properties. The Epoxy Resin （ER） is denser and has better bonding at the fiber and matrix interface than the vinyl ester resin matrix. Therefore, the ER exhibits better shear and compressive strengths than the vinyl ester resin matrix, thereby providing a design technology of the preparation process of the integrated honeycomb plate. The matrix material of this plate is composed of an epoxy （E51 ）, a curing agent （593）, and a thinner （501） at a ratio of 10：3：1; short basalt fibers are added as a reinforcing material at a 30% volume fraction. By increasing the curing temperature and other experimental conditions, we obtained an expected integrated honeycomb plate. This integrated honeycomb plate possesses properties such as a high fiber content, good shear and compressive performance, and high proc- essing efficiency.

Effect of Filler Content on Flexural and Viscoelastic Properties of Coir Fibers and Argania Nut-shells Reinforced Phenolic Resin Composites

The characteristics of two different kinds of lignocellulosic materials(vegetable fillers)with two morphologies as Argania nut-shells(ANS)particles and Coir Fibers(CF)were used as reinforcement for phenolic resin(Bakelite)in this work,and the composite are studied as a function of filler types,shape,content(10,20,and 30%wt.percent)and manufacturing loading force(1500 and 3000 LBs).Compression molding was used to create the composites,which were then evaluated using Scanning electronic microscopy(SEM),Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR),bending,dynamic-mechanical-thermal and rheological studies.The morphology of broken samples demonstrates that both fillers are well dispersed and distributed.When fillers are added to the matrix,the flexural characteristics improve,and the optimal values are attained in the case of Argania nut-shells.The results showed that the kind and shape of the fillers had a direct influence on the dynamic mechanical characteristics of the composites due to the reinforcement's modulus augmentation.It was noticed that,the increment of manufacturing loading force decreased the mechanical and dynamical properties of composites.The optimum properties obtained indicate that the composites can only be manufactured at low manufacturing loading force(1500 LBs).

Spatiotemporally-regulated multienzymatic polymerization endows hydrogel continuous gradient and spontaneous actuation

There are several natural materials which have evolved functional gradients,ingeniously attaining maximal efficacy from limited components.Herein,we utilized the spatiotemporal distribution of initiator acetylacetone to regulate the multienzyme polymerization and fabricate a chitosan-polymer hydrogel.The temporal priority order of acetylacetone was higher than phenolmodified chitosan by density functional theory calculation.The acetylacetone within the gelatin could gradually diffuse spatially into the chitosan hydrogel to fabricate the composite hydrogel with gradient network structure.The gradient hydrogel possessed a transferring topography from the two-dimensional pattern.A continuously decreased modulus along with acetylacetone diffusion was confirmed by atomic force microscope-based force mapping experiment.The water-retaining ability of various regions was confirmed by low-field nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR)and thermogravimetric analysis(TG)analysis,which led to the spontaneous actuation of gradient hydrogel with maximum 1821°/h curling speed and 227°curling angle.Consequently,the promising gradient hydrogels could be applied as intelligent actuators and flexible robots.

A Four-legged Wall-climbing Robot with Spines and Miniature Setae Array Inspired by Longicorn and Gecko

In industrial applications,climbing robots are widely used for climbing and detection of rough or smooth pipe surfaces.Inspired by the special claws of longicorn is that can crawl on rough surfaces and the array of tiny bristles of geckos that can crawl on smooth surfaces,a new type of wall-climbing robot for rough or smooth surfaces is proposed in this paper.The bionic palms of the robot are suggested with special bionic hooks inspired by the longicorn and bionic adhesive materials inspired by the gecko with a good performance on adhering on the surfaces.The special bionic hooks are manufactured by the 3D printing method and the bionic adhesive materials are made by the polymer print lithography technology.These two different bionic adhere accessory are used on the robot’s palm to achieve climbing on the different surfaces.This foldable climbing robot can not only bend its own body to accommodate the cylindrical contact surfaces of different diameters,but also crawl on vertical rough and smooth surfaces using their bionic palms.