Quantifying the role of mineral bridges on the fracture resistance of nacre-like composites

Significance Nacre, commonly called mother of pearl, is a biological composite that displays an exceptional combination of strength and noncatastrophic fracture behavior. The quantitative understanding of the structure–property correlations observed in nacre could provide powerful guidelines for the design of lightweight composite materials. By fabricating nacre-like brick-and-mortar composites from aligned alumina microplatelets interconnected by titania mineral bridges, we have been able to isolate and quantify the influence of mineral bridge density on the composite’s fracture properties. Because the model synthetic material is structured from ceramic constituents at the same length scale as biological nacre, it sheds light on the fundamental role of mineral bridges in natural brick-and-mortar structures, while also demonstrating outstanding mechanical properties.