Nature Communications (Jan 2020)
Lamellar architectures in stiff biomaterials may not always be templates for enhancing toughness in composites
Abstract
Nacre is a biological composite whose architecture greatly enhances its toughness. Here, the authors report on the toughness enhancement in the spicules of a marine sponge. The spicules display similar architecture to nacre; however, their architecture does not lead to similar toughness enhancement.