Functional adaptation of crustacean exoskeletal elements through structural and compositional diversity: a combined experimental and theoretical study

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Authors

FABRITIUS Helge-Otto ZIEGLER Andreas FRIÁK Martin NIKOLOV Svetoslav HUBER Julia SEIDL Bastian H. M. RUANGCHAI Sukhum ALAGBOSO Francisca I. KARSTEN Simone LU Jin JANUS Anna M. PETROV Michal ZHU Li-Fang HEMZALOVÁ Pavlína HILD Sabine RAABE Dierk NEUGEBAUER Joerg

Year of publication 2016
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source BIOINSPIRATION & BIOMIMETICS
MU Faculty or unit

Central European Institute of Technology

Citation
Web http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-3190/11/5/055006/meta;jsessionid=4AAF067E072A75B6F3CE418D6002876C.c1.iopscience.cld.iop.org
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-3190/11/5/055006
Field Other materials
Keywords Crustacea; cuticle; Decapoda; Isopoda; amorphous calcium carbonate; amorphous calcium phosphate; multi-scale modeling
Description The crustacean cuticle is a composite material that covers the whole animal and forms the continuous exoskeleton. Nano-fibers composed of chitin and protein molecules form most of the organic matrix of the cuticle that, at the macroscale, is organized in up to eight hierarchical levels. At least two of them, the exo- and endocuticle, contain a mineral phase of mainly Mg-calcite, amorphous calcium carbonate and phosphate. The high number of hierarchical levels and the compositional diversity provide a high degree of freedom for varying the physical, in particular mechanical, properties of the material. This makes the cuticle a versatile material ideally suited to form a variety of skeletal elements that are adapted to different functions and the eco-physiological strains of individual species. This review presents our recent analytical, experimental and theoretical studies on the cuticle, summarising at which hierarchical levels structure and composition are modified to achieve the required physical properties. We describe our multi-scale hierarchical modeling approach based on the results from these studies, aiming at systematically predicting the structure-composition-property relations of cuticle composites from the molecular level to the macro-scale. This modeling approach provides a tool to facilitate the development of optimized biomimetic materials within a knowledge-based design approach.
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