Mother-of-pearl in laboratory is expected to be transformed into artificial skeleton.

The research group of Professor Yu Shuhong of University of Science and Technology of China prepared artificial bionic structural materials for the first time by simulating the growth process of natural mother-of-pearl, which is highly similar to natural mother-of-pearl in chemical composition and microstructure, and has good strength and toughness. The results were published in the US Science magazine a few days ago.

The mother-of-pearl in the inner layer of the shell has a unique and complex micro-layered structure, which makes the mother-of-pearl have extraordinary hardness and toughness at the same time, which can not be found in many synthetic materials.

Yu Shuhong's team first built a similar layered "frame" with exactly the same organic material as the natural shell by means of orientation freezing and acetylation transformation, and placed it into an artificial "cavity". Unlike natural shellfish, which spend years secreting the organic substance and mineralizing calcium carbonate on its framework, Yu Shuhong's team designed a "circulatory system", that is, through a peristaltic pump similar to the human heart, continuously pumping saturated calcium bicarbonate solution into the framework of the cavity, while bringing out the residual waste after the reaction, the natural formation process of mother-of-pearl for several years can be "replicated" in two weeks. A hundred times faster. A variety of testing methods such as electron microscope show that the artificial material prepared by the material growth method which is highly similar to the natural strategy is highly similar to the natural mother-of-pearl in composition and microstructure. The micro-hierarchical structure and mechanical properties of natural mother-of-pearl are reproduced on many scales, and macroscopically, it also shows good strength and toughness.

Professor Yu Shuhong said that the process of human bone and tooth development is similar to that of mother-of-pearl formation, except that the main component of mineralization is calcium hydroxyl phosphate rather than calcium carbonate. The use of similar strategies to synthesize artificial bones or teeth is expected to highly reproduce the strength and toughness of human bones, and because the composition is highly similar, it can effectively avoid the rejection of materials implanted into the human body. it also avoids the pain of putting metal components into the human body before they have to be removed. (reporter Wu Changfeng)