Multi-scale mechanical analysis of biomineralized structures using acoustic and light scattering methods

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Living organisms form complex mineralized composite architectures that perform a variety of essential functions. These biological materials are commonly utilized for load-bearing purposes such as structural stability and mechanical strength. This functionality is accomplished from a relatively narrow range of constituent inorganic materials via hierarchical architecturing. Identifying the property‐structure‐function relationships in mineral‐organic biocomposites is one of major challenges in today’s biomaterials science. One of the main driving forces to study natural materials is to employ the concepts of functional biocomposite architectures as a source of inspiration for developing new materials. Specifically, synthesis of new composites that exhibit high stiffness in combination with high toughness is of great interest for numerous engineering applications. These aspects are well demonstrated in the ultrastructures of molluscan shells. Here, the mineral components provide general stiffness to the composite, and the organic interfaces play a key role in providing the mechanical superiority to these structures. Therefore, these assemblies are the most studied biomineralized tissues in terms of their mechanical performance and are the most synthetically mimicked biological structures.However, although numerous studies employed state-of-the-art methods to measure and/or model and/or simulate the mechanical behavior of molluscan shell ultrastructures, our understanding of their performance is limited. This is partially due to the lack the most fundamental knowledge of their mechanical characteristics, namely, the anisotropic elastic properties of the biomineral components and of the tissues they form. The current proposal is, thus, driven by the following research task: multi-scale investigation of linear elasticity of calcium carbonate-based biogenic architectures. To achieve this goal, two ultrastructural motifs, the columnar prismatic and layered architectures made of calcite or aragonite will be studied. The investigation will be carried out by adapting the classical Pulse-Echo and micro-Brillouin Spectroscopy methods. The teams of Dr. Igor Zlotnikov and Dr. Andrei Sotnikov possess the appropriate and complementary skill sets and competencies, as well as the necessary equipment to successfully complete this project. The outcome of this research will not only allow us to answer an outstanding question in the field of mechanics of biological materials, but the obtained knowledge is expected to have a fundamental impact on future study and design of bioinspired and biomimetic materials systems.