Have you ever observed the existence of seashell on the shore, if you have, you will see the miracle of a shell that looks not so attracted and sometimes it hides within the sand avoiding from predators that might endanger its life sustainability. The shell itself is functioned to protect the seashell weak physical body inside, while it has very hard skin that’s of miracle composite material is stronger than ceramics material. Imagine how the porcelain process step, it must be processed with high temperature ( 100 - 1400 °C) to obtain strong bonding of porcelain material. However, a hard skin shell is consisting of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and other organic materials that need only 4 °C in term of bonding material.
This interesting fact of the shell can tell us that nature provides a million of information and knowledge which is able to provide a solution for every problem in human life. Regarding how to deal with problem-solving. Biomimetic is one of the chemical science branches which concerns on finding a solution from nature. The recent research seems to explore the material composite that has the miracle properties that use in military, medical and construction. An imitation of nature has been attracted to the field of science and engineering researcher on producing smart material. The idea might come from the tiny animal such as spider, ant, and shell. The information might come from the plant either in term of the self-recovery system. The researchers are encouraged to mimic the strength or the advantage of the material that can be applied in the real application.
Abalone (sea shell)
Abalone is one of Mollusca species that has a miracle material composition of its hard skin when enlarged 300,000 times with an electron microscope looks like a brick wall of calcium carbonate together with a protein cement mortar. Even though, the nature of calcium carbonate is easily damaged, due to multi-layered structure of abalone hard skin. this material more resistant Up to 3,000 times more break-resistant than man-made material. The material of hard skin of abalone has been researched and discovered the natural characteristic that mimics natural material characteristic in term of the strength and multi-layer find that boron carbide has almost the same characteristic that can be applied in the military field to create a bulletproof jacket even uses as material for tank body and jet aircraft. Even all the characteristic is impossible to imitate but abalone shell hard skin has been the bio-inspired material to cope the need for human being.
Boron Carbide (B4c) Characteristic
Boron carbide (B4c) has thermometric properties that enable to convert the energy at high temperature, high neutron capture cross-section, high melting point, high elastic modulus and chemical resistant. That’s why This smart material is categorized as the nearest characteristic that mimics the characteristic of abalone shell in term of multi-layered structure strength.
Conclusion
Abalone shell is one of the materials provided by nature that has a tremendous advantage in term of protecting its weak body within the super strong shell which consists of miracle multilayered calcium carbonate material for self-defense. The researcher is encouraged to find out the mimic material in term of creating the smart material that inspired from nature such the abalone shells for human sustainability.
Reference
Cultural Perspective on Biomimetics
Secret Abalone Shell Strenght Revealed
