Project leader: E. Amstad

Team: N. Bruns, M. Lattuada, A. Fink

Nature produces composites with exceptional mechanical properties. For example, the shell of nacre is made of aragonite platelets interspaced by organic layers whose volume fraction does not exceed 5%; yet, the presence of these thin layers increases the toughness of nacre by up to three orders of magnitude. These outstanding mechanical properties have inspired a lot of work directed towards the fabrication of bio-inspired materials with compositions and structures that are similar to those of nacre has been conducted; however, the influence of the processing method on the properties of the final composite is still not well understood. It is thought that nature employs dissolution/crystallization and solid-state transformation pathways to produce CaCO3-based hard and tough materials. The overall goal of this project is thus to study the influence of the processing conditions on the crystalli­zation mechanism of CaCO3 and the structure and mechanical properties of the resulting composites.