Research report 2007 - Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart site
Artificial nacre - Bioinspired synthesis and properties
Authors
Burghard, Zaklina; Santomauro, Giulia; Rothenstein, Dirk; Bill, Joachim; Aldinger, Fritz
Departments
Materialsynthese und Mikrostrukturdesign (Prof. Dr. Eric Mittemeijer)
MPI für Metallforschung, Stuttgart
Summary
Nacre-like thin films were fabricated via a bio-inspired route combining chemical bath deposition of the inorganic component (TiO2 and ZnO) and layer-by-layer assembly of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes for the organic component. Nanoindentation testing revealed an increase in hardness imparted by the alternate-nanolayer architecture of the composite film. Further work also concerns the application of living organisms for the synthesis of novel biomaterials.