Natural structural materials are built at ambient temperature from a fairly limited selection of components. They usually comprise hard and soft phases arranged in complex hierarchical architectures, with characteristic dimensions spanning from the nanoscale to the macroscale. The resulting materials are lightweight and often display unique combinations of strength and toughness, but have proven difficult to mimic synthetically. Here, we review the common design motifs of a range of natural structural materials, and discuss the difficulties associated with the design and fabrication of synthetic structures that mimic the structural and mechanical characteristics of their natural counterparts.

Bioinspired structural materials

AACR Centennial Conference: Translational Cancer Medicine-- Nov 4-8, 2007; Singapore

PL02-05 

All cancers are due to abnormalities in DNA. The availability of the human genome sequence has led to the proposal that resequencing of cancer genomes will reveal the full complement of somatic mutations and hence all the cancer genes. To explore the nature of the information that will be derived from cancer genome sequencing we have sequenced the coding exons of the family of 518 protein kinases, ~1.3Mb DNA per cancer sample, in 210 cancers of diverse histological types. Despite the screen being directed toward the coding regions of a gene family that has previously been strongly implicated in oncogenesis, the results indicate that the majority of somatic mutations detected are “passengers”. There is considerable variation in the number and pattern of these mutations between individual cancers, indicating substantial diversity of processes of molecular evolution between cancers. The imprints of exogenous mutagenic exposures, mutagenic treatment regimes and DNA repair defects can all be seen in the distinctive mutational signatures of individual cancers. This systematic mutation screen and others have previously yielded a number of cancer genes that are frequently mutated in one or more cancer types and which are now anticancer drug targets (for example BRAF , PIK3CA , and EGFR ). However, detailed analyses of the data from our screen additionally suggest that there exist a large number of additional “driver” mutations which are distributed across a substantial number of genes. It therefore appears that cells may be able to utilise mutations in a large repertoire of potential cancer genes to acquire the neoplastic phenotype. However, many of these genes are employed only infrequently. These findings may have implications for future anticancer drug development.

Patterns of Somatic Mutation in Human Cancer Genomes

The attainment of both strength and toughness is a vital requirement for most structural materials; unfortunately these properties are generally mutually exclusive. Although the quest continues for stronger and harder materials, these have little to no use as bulk structural materials without appropriate fracture resistance. It is the lower-strength, and hence higher-toughness, materials that find use for most safety-critical applications where premature or, worse still, catastrophic fracture is unacceptable. For these reasons, the development of strong and tough (damage-tolerant) materials has traditionally been an exercise in compromise between hardness versus ductility. Drawing examples from metallic glasses, natural and biological materials, and structural and biomimetic ceramics, we examine some of the newer strategies in dealing with this conflict. Specifically, we focus on the interplay between the mechanisms that individually contribute to strength and toughness, noting that these phenomena can originate from very different lengthscales in a material's structural architecture. We show how these new and natural materials can defeat the conflict of strength versus toughness and achieve unprecedented levels of damage tolerance within their respective material classes.

/pdf/the-conflicts-between-strength-and-toughness-2cr075f2ul.pdf

The conflicts between strength and toughness

http://www.mtdna.or.kr/neowiz/board/up_files/files_17/Chitin_Chitosan_polymers_chemistrySolubilityFiberFormation.pdf

Chitin and chitosan polymers: Chemistry, solubility and fiber formation

Nature’s hierarchical materials

Biological materials: Structure and mechanical properties

http://maeresearch.ucsd.edu/mckittrick/pubs/2008_Acta_Biomater_3_587_Crab.pdf

Structure and mechanical properties of crab exoskeletons.

The nacreous portion of the abalone shell is composed of calcium carbonate crystals interleaved with layers of viscoelastic proteins. The resulting structure yields unique mechanical properties. In this study, we focus on the thin viscoelastic layers between the tiles and on their role on the mechanical properties of the shell. Both SEM and AFM show that the thin (approximately 30 nm) organic layer is porous, containing holes with diameter of approximately 50 nm. These holes enable the formation of mineral bridges between adjacent tile layers. The mineral bridges play a pivotal role in growth and ensure the maintenance of the same crystallographic relationship through tile growth in the 'terraced cone' mode. The existence of mineral bridges is consistent with the difference between tensile and compressive strength of the abalone. Mechanical tests with loading applied perpendicular to the plane of the organic layers reveal a tensile strength lower than 10 MPa, whereas the compressive strength is approximately 300-500 MPa. These nanoscale bridges have, by virtue of their dimensions (50 nm diameter x 30 nm length), a strength that reaches their theoretical value. The calculated tensile strength based on the theoretical strength predicts a bridge density of approximately 2.25/microm(2). A major conclusion of this investigation is that the role of the organic layer is primarily to subdivide the CaCO(3) matrix into platelets with thickness of 0.5 microm. Its intrinsic effect in providing a glue between adjacent tiles may not be significant.

http://www.meyersgroup.ucsd.edu/papers/journals/Meyers%20289.pdf

Mechanical strength of abalone nacre: Role of the soft organic layer

http://tglab.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Garcia_et_al_CurrentBiology_2013.pdf

Quantitative Imaging of Transcription in Living Drosophila Embryos Links Polymerase Activity to Patterning

The growth and self-assembly of aragonitic calcium carbonate found in the shell of abalone (Haliotis) is described. This was accomplished through the close examination of laboratory-grown flat pearl samples and cross-sectional slices of the nacreous shell. Further understanding of the sequenced assembly has been obtained. It has been confirmed that the growth of the aragonite component of the composite occurs by the successive nucleation of aragonite crystals and their arrest by means of a protein-mediated mechanism; it takes place in the “Christmas-tree pattern” [Nature 49 (1994) 371]. It is shown that the protein layer is virtually absent where plates on a same plane abut (along lateral surfaces of tiles). This suggests a mechanism of c-axis aragonite growth arrest by the deposition of a protein layer of approximately 20–30 nm that is periodically activated and determines the thickness of the aragonite platelets, which are remarkably constant (0.5 m). This platelet size was measured for animals with shell diameters of 10, 50, and 200 mm and was found to be constant. The overall growth process is expressed in terms of parameters incorporating the anisotropy of growth velocity in aragonite ( Vc, the velocity along c axis, and Vab, the velocity in basal plane). Comparison of laboratory-raised and naturally-grown abalone indicates growth regulated by the level of proteinaceous saturation. Naturally-grown abalone exhibits mesolayers (growth bands) ∼0.3 mm apart; it is proposed that they result from seasonal interruptions in feeding patterns, creating thicker ( ∼10–20m) layers of protein. These mesolayers play a critical role in the mechanical properties, and are powerful crack deflectors. The viscoplastic deformation of the organic inter-tile layers is responsible for the significant improvement of tensile strength over the tensile strength of monolithic aragonite. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

http://www.meyersgroup.ucsd.edu/papers/journals/Meyers%20261.pdf

Albert Lin

Papers

Biological materials: Structure and mechanical properties

Structure and mechanical properties of crab exoskeletons.

Mechanical strength of abalone nacre: Role of the soft organic layer

Quantitative Imaging of Transcription in Living Drosophila Embryos Links Polymerase Activity to Patterning

Growth and structure in abalone shell