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Sea Urchin Tooth Design: An “All‐Calcite” Polycrystalline Reinforced Fiber Composite for Grinding Rocks
Author(s) -
Ma Yurong,
Cohen Sidney R.,
Addadi Lia,
Weiner Steve
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.200702842
Subject(s) - materials science , calcite , grinding , crystallite , composite material , composite number , fiber , sea urchin , metallurgy , mineralogy , geology , paleontology
A convenient tooth. Here we investigate how the different kinds of calcite crystals in a sea urchin tooth (left) work together as an effective grinding tool. The polycrystalline matrix has a higher elastic modulus and hardness than the single crystals, yet both work together to produce a flat grinding surface (right).