Biochemical Processing of Materials: A Review
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LARRY L. HENCH Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
ABSTRACT Many biological systems have evolved means of controlling the architecture of inorganic-organic composites at a nanometer scale. The principles of biochemistry and materials science underlying the potential use of biochemical processing to develop new molecularly tailored materials are discussed, with emphasis on: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6)
methods of stereochemical control of the organic-inorganic interface, genetic and enzymic control of biosynthesis and biomineralization, molecular orbital modelling of bio organic-inorganic interfaces, barriers and limitations of biomimetic and hierarchical processing, examples of unique materials made with biochemical processing. needs and potential applications in human prostheses.
INTRODUCTION Biochemical processing of materials is defined as "the use of biochemical principles in
the design, processing or applicationofmaterials to achieve improved or unique combinations of physical, chemical or biologicalproperties." Many related concepts are embraced by the term "biochemicalprocessing":
Table 1. Biochemical Processing 1) biomimetic processing
5) supramolecular architecture
2) biomolecular materials processing
6) biocomposite processing
3) hierarchical processing
7) processing by self-assembly
4) biomineralization processing
8) cellular processing
The hypothesis underlying all of these materials processing approaches is that the biochemical principles that govern the structural development of living organisms at the molecular level can be used to create non-living, man-made materials with unique properties. The objective of this review is to examine the limitations of this hypothesis and to give a few examples of successes of its use. I will not attempt to review the literature proposed to support this hypothesis. For the reader interested in the background literature the MRS symposia on this topic and references 1-10 are valuable, especially the article by Heuer et al. which summarizes the proceedings of a 1991 D.O.E. sponsored workshop "designed to
explore possible new strategiesfor producing ceramic-polymer composites biomimetically, taking inspirationfrom the diversity of mineralized hard tissue in the animal kingdom [1]." 993 Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 346. 01994 Materials Research Society
Biological systems fabricate complex multicomponent, multiphase materials using assembly and processing strategies that are unique. The use of these or derivative strategies for the fabrication of synthetic materials is referred to as 'mimetic' because they mimic the basic biological processing schemes but are practiced outside of the natural biological context [1]. The term "hierarchicalprocessing" is used to describe the mimicking of a vital feature of biological systems; i.e, a sequential increase in complexity of structures: molecules, interfaces/membranes, vesicles, cells, tissues, organs. A 1993 D.O.E. sponsored workshop at Oak Ridge National Laboratory [2]
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