Oyster shell-inspired composites show that order leads to strength

Shellfish are a slightly surprising inspiration for many engineering innovations. The ancient invertebrates, one of the oldest forms of life on the planet, have evolved many tricks to get themselves through life which human ingenuity has not been able to match and seeks to copy; adhesives, pigments and water filtration systems have all been inspired by our shell-covered friends.

The most obvious feature of these organisms – their shells – is also an inspiration for engineers. A team at Columbia University in New York City, working with materials scientists from Rensselaer Polytechnic University in New York State, the University of South Carolina and the Leon Brillouin Laboratory in France (part of the French National Laboratory network), has now unveiled a technique that it claims can endow a blend of a polymer with strength and toughness inspired by nacre, the smooth, incredibly tough yet flexible iridescent material that lines oyster and other shells.