Synthetic nacre by predesigned matrix-directed mineralization

Making nacre shine in the lab Many of the materials that animals use to make shells and skeletons are built with brittle or soft molecules. They owe their amazing mechanical properties to their layered construction, which is a challenge for synthetic fabrication. Pearly nacre, for example, has proved challenging to make owing to its complex structure of aragonite crystals in an organic matrix. Using an assembly-and-mineralization approach, Mao...