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Inspired by squid beak, researchers in the US have created a lightweight composite from naturally abundant components that can be rigid at one end yet bendy at the other.
With a chitin beak and serrated chitin teeth on their arms and tentacles, nothing showcases biopolymer versatility quite like the giant squid. Unlike many strong biological materials, such as nacre in pearls or chiton mollusc teeth made of magnetite, chitin is devoid of metals and derives its extreme properties solely from organic molecules.
Interested? Read the full story in Chemistry World.
The original article can be read below and is free to access until the 20th April 2016.:
Squid beak inspired water processable chitosan composites with tunable mechanical properties
Xiaolin Zhang, Pegah Hassanzadeh, Takeo Miyake, Jungho Jin and Marco Rolandi*
J. Mater. Chem. B, 2016, 4, 2273-2279
DOI: 10.1039/C6TB00106H
