Year: 2021
Type: preprint
Abstract: The hardest materials in living organisms are biologically grown crystalline minerals, or biominerals, which are also incredibly fracture-tough. Biomineral mesostructure includes size, shape, spatial arrangement, and crystal orientation of crystallites, observable at the mesoscale (10 nanometer - 10 micron). Here we show that diverse biominerals, including nacre and prisms from mollusk shells, coral skeletons, and tunicate spicules have different mesostructures, but they converged to similar, small (<30 degrees) misorientations of adjacent crystals at the mesoscale. We show that such small misorientations are an effective toughening mechanism. Combining Polarization-dependent Imaging Contrast (PIC) mapping of mesostructures and Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations of misoriented bicrystals, we reveal here that small misorientations toughen bicrystals, thus explaining why they evolved independently but convergently: preventing fracture is a clear evolutionary advantage for diverse organisms.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Lew, Andrew J., Stifler, Cayla A., Schmidt, Connor A., Buehler, Markus J., Gilbert, Pupa U. P. A.
Language: English
Subfield: Biomaterials
Field: Materials Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative, Office of Naval Research, Division of Materials Research, Basic Energy Sciences, Laboratory Directed Research and Development, Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Army Research Office, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Awards: G1079818582, G1102702650, G1143651532, G1286236842, G1286251239, G1314494723, G1380171086, G1523888516, G1863003419, G2037563265, G213222014, G222768804, MAPPING OF TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL PHASE TRANSITIONS OF CACO3 IN ECHINODERM SKELETONS: KEY INSIGHTS INTO BASIC MECHANISMS IN BIOMINERALIZATION, G2618837358, G3040920244, G30714459, G3083819904, G3174313537, G3310577945, G3488658013, Graduate Research Fellowship Program, G3770966485, G3967535168, G419881185, G42916606, G4501827968, G4917416065, G498139845, G5226628132, G5261056217, MAPPING OF TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL PHASE TRANSITIONS OF CACO3 IN ECHINODERM SKELETONS: KEY INSIGHTS INTO BASIC MECHANISMS IN BIOMINERALIZATION, G5648016710, G5912748570, G6098521345, G6191928423, G650090426, G6652958823, G7057920781, G7142813775, G7354628648, Discovery of New Phenomena in Biomineral Formation, G96172096, G969889393
OpenAlex ID: W3194549038