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Revealing the Design Principles of High‐Performance Biological Composites Using Ab initio and Multiscale Simulations: The Example of Lobster Cuticle
Author(s) -
Nikolov Svetoslav,
Petrov Michal,
Lymperakis Liverios,
Friák Martin,
Sachs Christoph,
Fabritius HelgeOtto,
Raabe Dierk,
Neugebauer Jörg
Publication year - 2010
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.200902019
Subject(s) - materials science , homarus , ab initio , homogenization (climate) , nanocomposite , stiffness , composite material , chitin , microstructure , multiscale modeling , american lobster , atomic units , nanoscopic scale , molecular dynamics , nanotechnology , computational chemistry , chemical engineering , physics , crustacean , biodiversity , ecology , chemistry , quantum mechanics , chitosan , engineering , biology
Natural materials are hierarchically structured nanocomposites. A bottom‐up multiscale approach to model the mechanical response of the chitin‐based mineralized cuticle material of Homarus americanus is presented, by combining quantum‐mechanical ab initio calculations with hierarchical homogenization. The simulations show how the mechanical properties are transferred from the atomic scale through a sequence of specifically designed microstructures to realize optimal stiffness.