Synthesis and application of biomimetic material inspired by diatomite

Inspired by nature, the design and synthesis of novel biomimetic materials are gradually attracting the attention of scientists. Biomimetic materials with excellent performance are widely applied in medical health, industrial production, agricultural planting, aerospace, etc. As a natural porous biomass material, diatomite has the advantages of high porosity, low bulk density, stable chemical property and large surface area. Benefiting from these advantages, it is of great importance to treat diatomite as bionic substrate to synthesize diatomite biomimetic materials, which can be endowed good structure stability and natural mechanical property. It is an ideal option for crystal growth and uniform dispersion of nanostructures, to improve the agglomeration and high cost of nanomaterials. This review briefly introduces our recent achievements on diatomite biomimetic materials in different application fields. In view of its excellent optical, thermal, chemical and mechanical property, diatomite biomimetic materials have shown extensive application potential in various fields of science and engineering, which include catalysis, corrosion protection, microwave adsorption, super-hydrophobicity, pollutant adsorption, energy storage, etc. It demonstrates that diatomite biomimetic materials with different functional properties can be synthesized by diverse chemical means and preparation methods for different application. By composed of inorganic nanomaterial hybrid, this diatomite biomimetic materials display a three-dimensional network structure with diatomite morphology. The design and synthesis of diatomite biomimetic materials provide more potential bionic categories for different applications, which can accelerate the development of low-cost and high-performance biomimetic materials.