Bioinspired design of inorganic advanced functional materials

Nature offers outstanding examples of multifunctional complex structures able to address different needs by changing the composition or the arrangement of the available materials. In this work, a representative selection of bioinspired materials with functional application is presented. Taking inspiration from biominerals, calcite hybrid crystals including both small molecules and nPs have been synthesized. RA, a small molecule active in cell differentiation, has been included into calcite single crystals and its activity is conserved upon slow dissolution of the matrix. PluS-OH nanoparticles were successfully occluded into calcite without modifying the single crystalline nature of the material. Since different molecules such as drugs or biologically active molecules can be occluded into the PluS-X core, our strategy allows to embed different functions into the additive and make it independent from the nature of the molecule itself. Inverse opal structures able to slow light coupled with plasmonic nanoparticles and the enzyme lipase have been successfully used to obtain laser driven remote and localized control of the catalytic efficiency of the enzyme, thus obtaining a universal platform for catalytical efficiency enhancement. Sea urchin spines whose surface area has been amplified by adsorption of colloidal particles have been successfully used as a template to obtain a silica/titania replica with potential application in the photodegradation of small organic molecules. In conclusion, this thesis shows a selection of functional inorganic materials synthesized using design strategies found in Nature or exploiting natural occurring complex structures as templates, taking advantage of the possibility of using constituents that are not available to biological organisms.