Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Bioinspired ceramics

Turning brittleness into toughness

Nature Materials volume 13, pages 433–435 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

Nacre-like bulk ceramics with a unique combination of high toughness, strength and stiffness can be produced from brittle constituents by an ice-templating approach.

Replicating the design principles underlying the microscopic architecture of seashells in macroscopic synthetic materials has been a long-standing challenge. Although impressive enhancements in fracture toughness combined with high strength and plasticity have been achieved by assembling strong inorganic 'bricks' with at least 20 vol% of organic 'mortar'2,3, such a large fraction of organic phase limits the maximum temperature that the material can withstand. Writing in Nature Materials, Deville and colleagues now show that all-inorganic ceramics with a structure inspired by the nacreous layer of seashells can be made to exhibit high-temperature toughness, strength and stiffness4.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Natural nacreous composites and bioinspired ceramics.
Figure 2: Mechanical properties of the bioinspired nacre-like alumina ceramics of Deville and colleagues4.

References

  1. Meyers, M. A., Chen, P. Y., Lopez, M. I., Seki, Y. & Lin, A. Y. M. J. Mech. Behav. Biomed. Mater. 4, 626–657 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Munch, E. et al. Science 322, 1516–1520 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Bonderer, L. J., Studart, A. R. & Gauckler, L. J. Science 319, 1069–1073 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Bouville, F. et al. Nature Mater. 13, 508–514 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Deville, S. Adv. Eng. Mater. 10, 155–169 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Ritchie, R. O. Nature Mater. 10, 817–822 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Studart, A. R. Adv. Mater. 24, 5024–5044 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Erb, R. M., Libanori, R., Rothfuchs, N. & Studart, A. R. Science 335, 199–204 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Erb, R. M., Sander, J. S., Grisch, R. & Studart, A. R. Nature Commun. 4, 1712 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Mirkhalaf, M., Dastjerdi, A. K. & Barthelat, F. Nature Commun. 5, 3166 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Meyers, M. A., Lin, A. Y.-M., Chen, P.-Y. & Muyco, J. J. Mech. Behav. Biomed. Mater. 1, 76–85 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. André R. Studart is at the Department of Materials, ETH Zurich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 5, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland,

    André R. Studart

Authors
  1. André R. Studart
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to André R. Studart.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Studart, A. Turning brittleness into toughness. Nature Mater 13, 433–435 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3955

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat3955

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing