Intertidal exposure favors the soft-studded armor of adaptive mussel coatings.

ABSTRACT: The mussel cuticle, a thin layer that shields byssal threads from environmental exposure, is a model among high-performance coatings for being both hard and hyper-extensible. However, despite avid interest in translating its features into an engineered material, the mechanisms underlying this performance are manifold and incompletely understood. To deepen our understanding of this biomaterial, we explore here the ultrastructural, scratch-resistant, and mechanical features at the submicrometer scale and relate our observations to individual cuticular components. These investigations show that cuticle nanomechanics are governed by granular microinclusions/nanoinclusions, which, contrary to previous interpretations, are three-fold softer than the surrounding matrix. This adaptation, which is

SUBMITTER: Monnier CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6109138 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature