Beyond biomimicry: Innovative bioinspired materials strategies and perspectives for high-performance energy storage devices

Abstract

Bioinspired materials hold great potential for transforming energy storage devices due to escalating demand for high-performance energy storage. Beyond biomimicry, recent advances adopt nature-inspired design principles and use synthetic chemistry techniques to develop innovative hybrids that merge the strengths of biological and engineered materials. The multifaceted role of hierarchical structures, interfacial engineering, conjugated polymers, hybrid materials, and templating approaches is a powerful tool to translate bioinspired designs into high-energy, durable, and sustainable storage technologies by bridging fundamental biological motifs with rational materials engineering. Bioinspired hierarchical nanostructured electrodes provide accelerated ion and electron transport and electrolytes with enhanced safety by leveraging natural ion regulation mechanisms. However, significant challenges remain in reproducing the complex, dynamic interactions between material constituents and large-scale manufacturing. This review provides a comprehensive overview of bioinspired materials strategies that go beyond biomimicry to enable transformative advances in diverse storage applications spanning batteries, supercapacitors, fuel cells, and beyond. We critically analyze the structural design principles, synthetic approaches, characterization techniques, and theoretical aspects of bioinspired material innovations across multiple length scales. Perspectives, challenges, and opportunities are discussed in depth to provide critical insights into how bioinspiration can be harnessed to engineer unprecedented energy storage performances.