Transparent and tough bulk composites inspired by nacre

Tommaso Magrini, Florian Bouville (), Alessandro Lauria, Hortense Ferrand, Tobias P. Niebel and André R. Studart ()
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Tommaso Magrini: ETH Zurich
Florian Bouville: ETH Zurich
Alessandro Lauria: ETH Zurich
Hortense Ferrand: ETH Zurich
Tobias P. Niebel: ETH Zurich
André R. Studart: ETH Zurich

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Materials combining optical transparency and mechanical strength are highly demanded for electronic displays, structural windows and in the arts, but the oxide-based glasses currently used in most of these applications suffer from brittle fracture and low crack tolerance. We report a simple approach to fabricate bulk transparent materials with a nacre-like architecture that can effectively arrest the propagation of cracks during fracture. Mechanical characterization shows that our glass-based composites exceed up to a factor of 3 the fracture toughness of common glasses, while keeping flexural strengths comparable to transparent polymers, silica- and soda-lime glasses. Due to the presence of stiff reinforcing platelets, the hardness of the obtained composites is an order of magnitude higher than that of transparent polymers. By implementing biological design principles into glass-based materials at the microscale, our approach opens a promising new avenue for the manufacturing of structural materials combining antagonistic functional properties.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10829-2

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