Multiscale mechanical studies of nacre from gastropod mollusk Trochus Nilocitus

(cont.) revealed jagged and branched crack fronts at plate interface, tortuous crack paths, non-uniform angles of polygons (suggesting possible intrinsic deformability and displacement/sliding). The technique of nanoindentation was carried out on individual aragonite tablets using a diamond-coated Berkovich probe tip (end-radius of 70 nm, tip angle of 142.3 degrees), at a rate of indentation of 10 [micro]N/s (load controlled), forces from 10 to 1000 [micro]N and indentation depths from 10 to 97 nm. AFM inspection of the indented region showed the existence of extensive plastic deformation within the tablet and suggested that occluded biomacromolecules may play a significant role in the deformation at loads below 100 [micro]N. Using the contact elastic theory, a Young modulus of 112.3 GPa and a hardness of 10.5 GPa were found for an individual platelet. This study shows that a biocomposite principally composed of a poor ceramic (aragonite) can achieve surprisingly good macroscopic mechanical properties thanks to a complex hierarchical structure allowing an extraordinary variety of energy-dissipating mechanisms. Our aim is to continue to formulate multiscale structure-property relationships to eventually aid in the design and advancement of new synthetic biologically inspired lightweight, hard body armor technologies.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Bruet, Benjamin J. F. (Benjamin Jean Fernand), 1980-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Christine Ortiz.

• Materials Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/28878

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/28878