Iron-Clad Fibers: A Metal-Based Biological Strategy for Hard Flexible Coatings

By Jae Hun Seol, I. Jo, Arden Moore, L. Lindsay, Z. Aitken, M. Pettes, Xuesong Li, Zhenwei Yao, Rui Huang, D. Broido and 3 more. Science, 2010

890 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Mussel Fibers While it is possible to make strong fibers or threads from organic materials, most suffer from high wear abrasion. Marine mussels attach themselves to rocky seashores using a series of byssal threads. Despite the constant rubbing caused by the motion of the tides, the threads show high wear resistance. Harrington et al. (p. 216, published online 4 March; see the Perspective by Messersmith) now find that the threads are protected by a proteinaceous outer cuticle that is rich in the amino acid 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (dopa), which is known to be a strong adhesive. The cuticle is also rich in metal ions, primarily Fe3+. The dopa-metal crosslinks helped to form the tough outer coating. Marine mussel byssal threads have an outer coating in which proteins are linked to metal ions. The extensible byssal threads of marine mussels are shielded from abrasion in wave-swept habitats by an outer cuticle that is largely proteinaceous and approximately fivefold harder than the thread core. Threads from several species exhibit granular cuticles containing a protein that is rich in the catecholic amino acid 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (dopa) as well as inorganic ions, notably Fe3+. Granular cuticles exhibit a remarkable combination of high hardness and high extensibility. We explored byssus cuticle chemistry by means of in situ resonance Raman spectroscopy and demonstrated that the cuticle is a polymeric scaffold stabilized by catecholato-iron chelate complexes having an unusual clustered distribution. Consistent with byssal cuticle chemistry and mechanics, we present a model in which dense cross-linking in the granules provides hardness, whereas the less cross-linked matrix provides extensibility.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Mechanical Engineering, Surfaces, Coatings and Films

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/cb13888ef71af0747a98b285d855c8cacc4c8da0

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

1. M. Meyers
2. J. Waite
3. R. Ritchie
4. P. Messersmith
5. F. Barthelat

In Mechanical Engineering

1. M. Meyers
2. F. Pacheco-Torgal
3. Zhefeng Zhang
4. R. Ritchie
5. Zengqian Liu

In Surfaces, Coatings and Films

1. M. Meyers
2. J. Waite
3. Bruce P. Lee
4. C. Falentin-Daudré
5. D. Fournier
6. C. Jérôme
7. C. Detrembleur
8. E. Faure

Citations in the corpus

• Nanotechnology: Advantages and drawbacks in the field of construction and building materials (2011, background): “009 Another example comes from the spider silk which possesses a strength/mass ratio that exceeds the steel ratio [9–11].”
• Self-Healing Injectable Hydrogels for Tissue Regeneration (2022, positive): “101 Numerous studies described such mussel-inspired self-healing hydrogels based on reversible catechol − Fe 3+ coordination.”
• The future of construction materials research and the seventh UN Millennium Development Goal: A few insights (2013, background): “5) which possess a strength/mass ratio that exceeds the steel ratio and toughness higher than Kevlar fibres [68–71].”
• pH-induced metal-ligand cross-links inspired by mussel yield self-healing polymer networks with near-covalent elastic moduli (2011, background): “In contrast to covalent bonds, metal-dopa bonds can spontaneously reform after breaking (11) and the model predicts that the damage accumulated in the cuticle could self-heal via reformation of broken catechol-Fe3þ complexes (4).”