Nature’s newest supermaterial

Nature’s newest supermaterial comes from a mollusk found on the rocky shores of western Europe. The teeth of the limpets are even stronger than spider silk, the previous record holder.

Limpet teeth grow from a radula, a ribbonlike structure used to scrape and cut food, such as algae, off rocky surfaces. The teeth are built of protein frames reinforced by closely packed nanofibres of a mineral called goethite. The material displayed a very high tensile strength of up to 6.5 gigapascals (GPa); in comparison, spider silk has a tensile strength of up to 4.5 GPa, and Kevlar boasts only about 3.0-3.5 GPa. What’s interesting is that limpet teeth retain their strength regardless of size

Scientists believe the structure could be reproduced in high-performance engineering applications such as Formula 1 racing cars, boat hulls and aircraft.

Examining effective designs in nature and then making structures based on these designs is known as ‘bio-inspiration’.