Last. Robert O. Ritchie(University of California, Berkeley)H-Index: 132
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Abstract Suture interfaces are one of the most common architectural designs in natural material-systems and are critical for ensuring multiple functionalities by providing flexibility while maintaining connectivity. Despite intensive studies on the mechanical role of suture structures, there is still a lack of understanding on the fracture mechanics of suture interfaces in terms of their interactions with impinging cracks. Here we reveal an interfacial toughening effect of suture structures by m...
#1Guoqi Tan(CAS: Chinese Academy of Sciences)H-Index: 6
#2Jian Zhang(CAS: Chinese Academy of Sciences)H-Index: 149
Last. Robert O. Ritchie(University of California, Berkeley)H-Index: 132
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Making replacements for the human body similar to natural tissue offers significant advantages but remains a key challenge. This is pertinent for synthetic dental materials, which rarely reproduce the actual properties of human teeth and generally demonstrate relatively poor damage tolerance. Here new bioinspired ceramic-polymer composites with nacre-mimetic lamellar and brick-and-mortar architectures are reported, which resemble, respectively, human dentin and enamel in hardness, stiffness, and...
#1Da Jiao(CAS: Chinese Academy of Sciences)H-Index: 11
#2Ruitao Qu(CAS: Chinese Academy of Sciences)H-Index: 21
Last. Zhefeng Zhang(CAS: Chinese Academy of Sciences)H-Index: 53
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Abstract The nacre of mollusk shells is distinguished by an exceptional mechanical efficiency which is derived essentially from its lamellar structure and frequently acts as a source of inspiration for the development of biomimetic materials. The structure and mechanical properties of nacre have been intensively investigated with a special focus on its toughening strategies; nevertheless, the fracture mechanisms, more specifically the critical stress/strain conditions for the failure of nacre, a...
#1Wei Huang(UCR: University of California, Riverside)H-Index: 13
#1Wei Huang(UCR: University of California, Riverside)H-Index: 68
Last. David Kisailus(UCR: University of California, Riverside)H-Index: 32
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: Biological materials found in Nature such as nacre and bone are well recognized as light-weight, strong, and tough structural materials. The remarkable toughness and damage tolerance of such biological materials are conferred through hierarchical assembly of their multiscale (i.e., atomic- to macroscale) architectures and components. Herein, the toughening mechanisms of different organisms at multilength scales are identified and summarized: macromolecular deformation, chemical bond breakage, ...
Abstract Recent researches show that material microstructural designs mimicking biomaterials offer an effective way to produce tougher composites. To reveal the underlying microstructure-toughness relationship, five bioinspired material microstructures are investigated experimentally, including the brick-and-mortar, cross-lamellar, concentric hexagonal, and rotating plywood microstructures. The feature sizes of these microstructures are controlled to be one order smaller than the specimen size, ...
Glass has outstanding optical properties, hardness, and durability, but its applications are limited by its inherent brittleness and poor impact resistance. Lamination and tempering can improve impact response but do not suppress brittleness. We propose a bioinspired laminated glass that duplicates the three-dimensional “brick-and-mortar” arrangement of nacre from mollusk shells, with periodic three-dimensional architectures and interlayers made of a transparent thermoplastic elastomer. This mat...
#1Zhaoqiang Song(UCSD: University of California, San Diego)H-Index: 9
#2Yong Ni(USTC: University of Science and Technology of China)H-Index: 26
Last. Shengqiang Cai(UCSD: University of California, San Diego)H-Index: 30
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Abstract Twisted or oscillated plywood structure can be often found in biological composites such as claws of lobsters, bone of mammals, dactyl club of mantis shrimps, and exoskeleton of beetles, which exhibits a combination of high stiffness, high fracture toughness and low density. However, there lacks a quantitative understanding of the relationship between the fracture toughness of the composite and its internal geometry. In this article, we propose that a combination of crack tilting and cr...
Last. Robert O. Ritchie(University of California, Berkeley)H-Index: 132
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Abstract The structural constituents of tissues in organisms are composed primarily of minerals and proteins. Collagen is the most common protein used to construct such natural materials in vertebrates; among these structures, a wide variety of hierarchical architectures with structural and property gradients have evolved to induce desired combinations of stiffness, strength, ductility and toughness for a diverse range of mechanical functionalities. The soft collagen provides biological material...
#1Wei Huang(UCSD: University of California, San Diego)H-Index: 68
#1Wei Huang(UCSD: University of California, San Diego)H-Index: 13
Last. Joanna McKittrick(UCSD: University of California, San Diego)H-Index: 55
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Abstract The equine hoof has been considered as an efficient energy absorption layer that protects the skeletal elements from impact when galloping. In the present study, the hierarchical structure of a fresh equine hoof wall and the energy absorption mechanisms are investigated. Tubules are found embedded in the intertubular matrix forming the hoof wall at the microscale. Both tubules and intertubular areas consist of keratin cells, in which keratin crystalline intermediate filaments (IFs) and ...
#1Jian Zhang(CAS: Chinese Academy of Sciences)H-Index: 2
#1J. Zhang(CAS: Chinese Academy of Sciences)H-Index: 1
Last. Zhefeng Zhang(CAS: Chinese Academy of Sciences)H-Index: 53
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Abstract Operating mainly as a type of weapon, the beetle horn develops an impressive mechanical efficiency based on chitinous materials to maximize the injury to opponent and simultaneously minimize the damage to itself and underlying brain under stringent loading conditions. Here the cephalic horn of the beetle Allomyrina dichotoma is probed using multiscale characterization combined with finite element simulations to explore the origins of its biomechanical functionality from the perspective ...
Abstract null null The microscopic Bouligand-type architectures of fish scales demonstrate a notable efficiency in enhancing the damage tolerance of materials; nevertheless, it is challenging to reproduce in metals. Here bioinspired tungsten-copper composites with different Bouligand-type architectures mimicking fish scales were fabricated by infiltrating a copper melt into woven contextures of tungsten fibers. These composites exhibit a synergetic enhancement in both strength and ductility at r...
Last. Xiaowu Li(NU: Northeastern University)H-Index: 2
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Abstract To explore the differences in mechanical behavior of nacre between shells that live in different water depths, the microstructures, phase composition and related mechanical properties of nacre under indentation, three-point bending and shear tests in deep-sea Nautilus and freshwater Cristaria plicata shells were systematically investigated. It is found that the nacreous structure in Nautilus shell exhibits an outstanding combination of high strength and high toughness compared with that...
#1Fuqiang Wan(WUT: Wuhan University of Technology)H-Index: 1
#2Hang Ping(WUT: Wuhan University of Technology)H-Index: 11
Last. Zhengyi Fu(WUT: Wuhan University of Technology)H-Index: 31
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Abstract Biological materials have excellent mechanical properties due to their organized structures from nano- to macro-scale. Artificial manufacture of materials with anisotropic microstructures still remains challenging. We described a stress-induced method to fabricate anisotropic alginate fibers. Organic-inorganic composite fibers were obtained by incorporating aligned hydroxyapatite (HAP) nanowires into the alginate fiber. Detailed structural characterization revealed the bone-like structu...
Developments of soft network materials with rationally distributed wavy microstructures have enabled many promising applications in bio-integrated electronic devices, due to their abilities to reproduce precisely nonlinear mechanical properties of human tissues/organs. In practical applications, the soft network materials usually serve as the encapsulation layer and/or substrate of bio-integrated electronic devices, where deterministic holes can be utilized to accommodate hard chips, thereby inc...
Abstract The mechanical properties of cellulose nanocrystal (CNC) films critically depend on many microstructural parameters such as fiber length distribution (FLD), fiber orientation distribution (FOD), and the strength of the interactions between the fibers. In this paper, we use our coarse-grained molecular model of CNC to study the effect of length and orientation distribution and attractions between CNCs on the mechanical properties of neat CNCs. The effect of misalignment of a 2D staggered...
Abstract Bio-based coatings gradually become an ideal substitution for the non-renewable petroleum-based coatings due to the features of environmental friendliness and low cost, and the preparation of high-performance bio-based coatings via a facile method is highly desirable. Herein, bio-based organic-inorganic hybrid UV-curable coatings with self-cleaning property were prepared in a solvent-free one-pot method. In this coating system, synthesized epoxidized castor oil (ECO) was used as a coati...
#1Lilong Zhang(MOE: Chinese Ministry of Education)
#2Zengqian Liu(USTC: University of Science and Technology of China)H-Index: 17
Last. Zhefeng Zhang(USTC: University of Science and Technology of China)H-Index: 53
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The replacement of synthetic foam materials using natural biological ones is of great significance for saving energy/resources and reducing environmental pollutions. Here we characterized the microstructure and mechanical properties of natural cornstalk pith, which has a large annual output yet lacks an effective exploitation, and evaluated its feasibility for applications as a substitute for synthetic foam materials. The cornstalk pith was revealed to be a cellular material composed of closed c...
#1Andrea Pieri(RIT: Rochester Institute of Technology)H-Index: 1
#2Benjamin D. Korman(URMC: University of Rochester Medical Center)H-Index: 16
Last. Karin Wuertz-Kozak(Paracelsus Private Medical University of Salzburg)H-Index: 14
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Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a complex multisystem disease with the highest case-specific mortality among all autoimmune rheumatic diseases, yet without any available curative therapy. Therefore, the development of novel therapeutic antifibrotic strategies that effectively decrease skin and organ fibrosis is needed. Existing animal models are cost-intensive, laborious and do not recapitulate the full spectrum of the disease and thus commonly fail to predict human efficacy. Advanced in vitro model...