Cracking the Mystery of Nature's Toughest Material
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Nacre, the rainbow-sheened material that lines the insides of mussel and other mollusk shells, is known as nature's toughest material. Now, a team of researchers has revealed precisely how it works, in real time.
More commonly known as mother-of-pearl, nacre's combination of hardness and resilience has mystified scientists for more than 80 years. If humans could mimic it, it could lead to a new generation of ultra-strong synthetic materials for structures, surgical implants and countless other applications.
"We humans can make tougher materials using unnatural environments, for example extreme heat and pressure. But we can't replicate the kind of nano-engineering that mollusks have achieved. Combining the two approaches could lead to a spectacular new generation of materials, and this paper is a step in that direction," said Robert Hovden, U-M assistant professor of materials science and engineering.
Researchers have known the basics of nacre's secret for decades -- it's made of microscopic "bricks" of a mineral called aragonite, laced together with a "mortar" made of organic material. This bricks-and-mortar arrangement clearly lends strength, but nacre is far stronger than its materials suggest.
"Nature is handing us these highly optimized structures with millions of years of evolution behind them," he said. "We could never run enough computer simulations to come up with these -- they're just there for us to discover."
Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191023150330.htm
Journal Reference: Jiseok Gim, Noah Schnitzer, Laura M. Otter, Yuchi Cui, Si(C)bastien Motreuil, Fri(C)di(C)ric Marin, Stephan E. Wolf, Dorrit E. Jacob, Amit Misra, Robert Hovden. Nanoscale deformation mechanics reveal resilience in nacre of Pinna nobilis shell. Nature Communications, 2019; 10 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12743-z
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