Although humans have long been imitating biological structures to serve their particular purposes, only a few decades ago engineered biomimicry began to be considered a technoscientific discipline with a great problem-solving potential. The three methodologies of engineered biomimicry––viz., bioinspiration, biomimetic, and bioreplication––employ and impact numerous technoscientific fields. For producing fuels and electricity by artificial photosynthesis, both processes and porous surfaces inspired by plants and certain marine animals are under active investigation. Biomimetically textured surfaces on the subwavelength scale have been shown to reduce the reflectance of photovoltaic solar cells over the visible and the near-infrared regimes. Lenticular compound lenses bioreplicated from insect eyes by an industrially scalable technique offer a similar promise.
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Progress on bioinspired, biomimetic, and bioreplication routes to harvest solar energy
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June 2017
Review Article|
April 28 2017
Progress on bioinspired, biomimetic, and bioreplication routes to harvest solar energy
Raúl J. Martín-Palma
;
Raúl J. Martín-Palma
a)
1Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University,
University Park
, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
Search for other works by this author on:
Akhlesh Lakhtakia
Akhlesh Lakhtakia
b)
2Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics, The Pennsylvania State University,
University Park
, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
Search for other works by this author on:
a)
E-mail: raul@psu.edu
b)
E-mail: akhlesh@psu.edu
Appl. Phys. Rev. 4, 021103 (2017)
Article history
Received:
January 11 2017
Accepted:
April 04 2017
Citation
Raúl J. Martín-Palma, Akhlesh Lakhtakia; Progress on bioinspired, biomimetic, and bioreplication routes to harvest solar energy. Appl. Phys. Rev. 1 June 2017; 4 (2): 021103. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4981792
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