Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 3.8
(a) Schematic illustration of artificial nacre composed of flat and wavy tablets and its tensile behavior
(adapted from Ref.
40
), and (b) schematic illustration of artificial nacre composed of wavy tablets and its tensile behavior.
Adapted from Ref.
42
.
duplicate the mechanisms observed in nature, it
should (i) guarantee a microstructure design that
conveys the main structural characteristic of nat-
ural composites, and (ii) utilize a fabrication
strategy that is able to implement the design in
several length scales so that large-scale structures
with tailored microstructure can be fabricated
from small inclusions. This type of microstruc-
ture increases the number of interface interac-
tions, which ultimately results in efficient load
transfer and improves mechanical performance.
The design of biomimetic hard materials starts
by selecting the ingredients, which of course do
not need to be of the same chemical composition
as the natural original. For the hard and stiff
inclusions, materials such as hydroxyapatite, cal-
cium carbonate, glass, graphite, montmorillonite
particularly toughness. Significant research
efforts are currently underway to develop arti-
ficial biomimetic materials with structures on
the micrometer and nanometer scales by using a
wide variety of fabrication techniques
[16]
.
Nature uses biomineralization to build sophis-
ticated hard and stiff materials. Although excel-
lent qualitative investigations have been reported
in natural biomineralization, some aspects of this
complex process are still unknown
[43-45]
. Har-
vesting and controlling mineralization to fabri-
cate complex and highly controlled mineral
structures is still a research challenge. Material
scientists, chemists, and engineers have therefore
proposed alternative approaches consisting of
innovative and unconventional techniques. In
order for a methodology to successfully
