仿生材料是指模仿生物的各种特点或特性而研制开发的人工合成材料。受自然界中各种性能优异的生物材料的启发，本课题组致力于仿生矿化、仿生皮肤、仿生黏附和肌肉仿生等领域的研究工作，试图开发出足以媲美甚至超越生物材料性能的新材料。

比如，我们模仿透明虾壳的结构组成(无定型碳酸钙+几丁质+蛋白质)，利用聚丙烯酸交联极小的无定型碳酸钙纳米粒子，制备出了一类新型的具有可塑性、可自修复性、可拉伸性的矿物水凝胶。该水凝胶干燥后形成连续透明的坚硬块体材料，而将之浸入水中，又可恢复至水凝胶的状态。因其具有类似传统塑料的可反复加工的性质，这一材料又被我们称为“矿物塑料”(Mineral Plastics)[1]。

我们进一步调节该矿物水凝胶的粘弹性，并利用其离子传导特性，将此矿物水凝胶应用于仿生离子皮肤的构筑，获得了可自修复并自适应物体表面形状的高灵敏人工皮肤[2]。

代表性论文

1. Shengtong Sun, Li-Bo Mao, Zhouyue Lei, Shu-Hong Yu, and Helmut Cölfen*. Hydrogels from Amorphous Calcium Carbonate and Polyacrylic Acid: Bio-Inspired Materials for “Mineral Plastics”.Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 11765-11769. (Highlighted by Giulia Pacchioni. Hydrogels: Mineral Shapeshifters.Nat. Rev. Mater.2016, 1, 16062.

2. Zhouyue Lei, and Peiyi Wu*. A Supramolecular Biomimetic Skin Combining a Wide Spectrum of Mechanical Properties and Multiple Sensory Capabilities. Nat. Commun. 2018, 9, 1134.

3. Zhouyue Lei, Quankang Wang, Shengtong Sun, Wencheng Zhu, and Peiyi Wu*. A Bioinspired Mineral Hydrogel as a Self-Healable, Mechanically Adaptable Ionic Skin for Highly Sensitive Pressure Sensing.Adv. Mater. 2017, 29, 1700321.

4. Shengtong Sun, Denis Gebauer*, and Helmut Cölfen*. Alignment of Amorphous Iron Oxide Clusters: A Non-Classical Mechanism for Magnetite Formation.Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2017, 56, 4042-4046.

5. Shengtong Sun, Daniel M. Chevrier, Peng Zhang, Denis Gebauer*, and Helmut Cölfen*. Distinct Short-Range Order Is Inherent to Small Amorphous Calcium Carbonate Clusters (<2 nm).Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 12206-12209.

6. Zhouyue Lei, Quankang Wang, and Peiyi Wu*. A Multifunctional Skin-Like Sensor Based on a Printable and Thermo-Responsive Hydrogel.Mater. Horiz. 2017, 4, 694-700.

7. Shengtong Sun, Denis Gebauer, and Helmut Cölfen*. A General Strategy for Colloidal Stable Ultrasmall Amorphous Mineral Clusters in Organic Solvents.Chem. Sci. 2017, 8, 1400-1405.

8. Zhouyue Lei, Wencheng Zhu, Shengtong Sun*, and Peiyi Wu*. MoS2-Based Dual-Responsive Flexible Anisotropic Actuators.Nanoscale 2016, 8, 18800-18807.

9. Shengtong Sun, Denis Gebauer, and Helmut Cölfen*. A Solvothermal Method for Synthesizing Monolayer Protected Amorphous Calcium Carbonate Clusters.Chem. Commun. 2016, 52, 7036-7038.

10. Wei Li, Shengtong Sun, Qisi Yu, and Peiyi Wu*. Controlling the Morphology of BaCO3 Aggregates by Carboxymethyl Cellulose through Polymer Induced Needle-Stacking Self-Assembly. Cryst. Growth Des. 2010, 10, 2685-2692.