title: Bio-mimetic mechanisms of natural hierarchical materials: a review.
abstract: Natural selection and evolution develop a huge amount of biological materials in different environments (e.g. lotus in water and opuntia in desert). These biological materials possess many inspiring properties, which hint scientists and engineers to find some useful clues to create new materials or update the existing ones. In this review, we highlight some well-studied (e.g. nacre shell) and newly-studied (e.g. turtle shell) natural materials, and summarize their hierarchical structures and mechanisms behind their mechanical properties, from animals to plants. These fascinating mechanisms suggest to researchers to investigate natural materials deeply and broadly, and to design or fabricate new bio-inspired materials to serve our life.
authors: Laboratory of Biomechanics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, 210096 Nanjing, PR China.
authors: Qiang
authors: Q
authors: Chen
authors: Nicola M
authors: NM
authors: Pugno
mesh_terms: D060105:Animal Shells; D000818:Animals; D001688:Biological Products / Q000737:chemistry; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D032701:Biomimetics; D060734:Nacre / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D001688:Biological Products; D060734:Nacre