Micro- and nanoscale effects in biological and bioinspired materials and surfaces

• Thies H. Büscher,
• Rhainer Guillermo Ferreira,
• Manuela Rebora and
• Stanislav N. Gorb

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2026, 17, 214–217, doi:10.3762/bjnano.17.14

• materials. In this context, González et al. [22] investigated functionally graded polypropylene-based materials and metamaterials inspired by the interfacial connection between the hemiparasitic mistletoe and its plant host. Their glass-fiber-reinforced polypropylene mimics of the mistletoe–host connection

Bioinspired polypropylene-based functionally graded materials and metamaterials modeling the mistletoe–host interface

• Lina M. Rojas González,
• Naeim Ghavidelnia,
• Christoph Eberl and
• Max D. Mylo

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2025, 16, 1592–1606, doi:10.3762/bjnano.16.113

• with the host branch and provide a framework for creating bioinspired functionally graded material systems with programmable local strain and failure behavior. Keywords: bioinspiration; digital image correlation; fiber-reinforced polypropylene; materials interface; programmable failure; Introduction

• flow rate of 12 g/10 min and an indicated modulus of 1400 MPa and glass fiber-reinforced polypropylene MP2000 (hereafter abbreviated as PPGF) with 25% glass fiber content, a melt flow rate of 16 g/10 min and an indicated modulus of 4000 MPa (both LyondellBasell, Rotterdam, Netherlands). The reported

• achieved in the production of continuously graded FGMs by adapting the interface geometry to resemble a mistletoe sinker. This applies to both unidirectional and bidirectional gradients. Our approach of processing glass fiber-reinforced polypropylene is only one of many possible material systems and can be