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Pervasive nanoscale deformation twinning as a catalyst for efficient energy dissipation in a bioceramic armour

Nature Materials volume 13, pages 501–507 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

Hierarchical composite materials design in biological exoskeletons achieves penetration resistance through a variety of energy-dissipating mechanisms while simultaneously balancing the need for damage localization to avoid compromising the mechanical integrity of the entire structure and to maintain multi-hit capability. Here, we show that the shell of the bivalve Placuna placenta (~99 wt% calcite), which possesses the unique optical property of ~80% total transmission of visible light, simultaneously achieves penetration resistance and deformation localization via increasing energy dissipation density (0.290 ± 0.072 nJ μm−3) by approximately an order of magnitude relative to single-crystal geological calcite (0.034 ± 0.013 nJ μm−3). P. placenta, which is composed of a layered assembly of elongated diamond-shaped calcite crystals, undergoes pervasive nanoscale deformation twinning (width ~50 nm) surrounding the penetration zone, which catalyses a series of additional inelastic energy dissipating mechanisms such as interfacial and intracrystalline nanocracking, viscoplastic stretching of interfacial organic material, and nanograin formation and reorientation.

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Figure 1: Microstructural/crystallographic features and mechanical behaviour of biogenic calcite in Placuna placenta in comparison to single-crystal geological calcite.
Figure 2: Nanoscale deformation twinning in P. placenta.
Figure 3: Nanoscopic inelastic deformation in individual calcitic layers of P. placenta.
Figure 4: Nanoscale deformation mechanisms in P. placenta and single-crystal calcite under indentation.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation through the MIT Center for Materials Science and Engineering (DMR-0819762), the US Army Research Office through the MIT Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (Contract W911NF-07-D-0004), the National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship Program (N00244-09-1-0064), and the Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. The authors would like to thank J. Li, Y. Zhu, M. Dao and A. Schwartzman for fruitful general discussions of the manuscript. The authors would like to thank J. C. Weaver for his assistance in scanning electron microscopy imaging. The authors would also like to thank L. Han, A. Schwartzman, S. Chen, Y. Zhang and M. J. Connors for their technical assistance.

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  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts 02139, USA,

    Ling Li & Christine Ortiz

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  1. Ling Li
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L.L. and C.O. designed the research, analysed the data and wrote the manuscript. L.L. conducted the experiments

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Correspondence to Christine Ortiz.

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Li, L., Ortiz, C. Pervasive nanoscale deformation twinning as a catalyst for efficient energy dissipation in a bioceramic armour. Nature Mater 13, 501–507 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3920

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