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

生物体形成复杂的矿化复合结构，执行各种基本功能。这些生物材料通常用于承载目的，如结构稳定性和机械强度。这种功能是通过分层结构从相对狭窄的无机材料组成中实现的。确定矿物-有机生物复合材料的性质-结构-功能关系是当今生物材料科学的主要挑战之一。研究天然材料的主要动力之一是利用功能性生物复合材料架构的概念作为开发新材料的灵感来源。具体来说，合成具有高刚度和高韧性的新型复合材料对许多工程应用具有很大的兴趣。这些方面在软体动物壳的超微结构中得到了很好的证明。在这里，矿物成分为复合材料提供了一般的刚度，而有机界面在为这些结构提供机械优势方面起着关键作用。因此，就其机械性能而言，这些组件是研究最多的生物矿化组织，也是最容易被人工模拟的生物结构。然而，尽管许多研究采用了最先进的方法来测量和/或建模和/或模拟软体动物外壳超微结构的力学行为，但我们对其性能的理解是有限的。这部分是由于缺乏对其机械特性的最基本知识，即生物矿物成分及其形成的组织的各向异性弹性特性。因此，目前的建议是由以下研究任务驱动的：基于碳酸钙的生物结构的线性弹性的多尺度研究。为了实现这一目标，将研究两种超微结构，方解石或文石构成的柱状、棱柱状和层状结构。研究将采用经典的脉冲回波和微布里渊光谱方法进行。伊戈尔·兹洛特尼科夫博士和安德烈·索特尼科夫博士的团队拥有适当和互补的技能和能力，以及成功完成该项目所需的设备。这项研究的结果不仅使我们能够回答生物材料力学领域的一个悬而未决的问题，而且所获得的知识有望对未来生物灵感和仿生材料系统的研究和设计产生根本性的影响。

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.