The philosophy of extreme biomimetics

Extreme biomimetics is the search for natural sources of engineering inspiration that lead to solutions that are well outside the human comfort zone (temperature, pH, salinity, pressure, etc.). Recent progress in extreme biomimetics has offered a brand-new springboard for the materials and engineering communities to reshuffle traditional approaches for designing of biopolymers-based composites at ambient conditions. Partially, this modern scientific direction refers to the utilization of thermostable, pressure and chemically resistant biopolymers, found in biologically extreme environments, for the in-vitro preparation of novel inorganic-organic composite materials. This field informs fundamental questions about the mechanisms and principles of biomineralization processes also in extreme environments. The first part of this review focuses on extreme biomineralization among psychrophilic, hydrothermal, alkaliphilic and halophilic organisms. In the second part, we discuss analysis of selected biopolymers of plant (cellulose) and animal (chitin, chitosan, silk, spongin) origin, which are thermostable and resistant to chemically harsh laboratory conditions. Special attention has been focused on carbonization of selected biomaterials. Finally, we take the liberty to discuss the perspectives underlying intriguing experimental scenarious within extreme biomimetics.