Asperities on the surface of plate-like alumina and their effect on nacre-inspired alumina-PMMA composites

Abstract

Natural materials often have unique mechanical properties, such as the hierarchical structure of nacre formed through mineral bridges or asperities created between an inorganic particle and a natural-layer surface. As these asperities produce an exceptional shear resistance, in this study, we aimed to emulate the natural structure of nacre by synthesizing inorganic asperities and mineral bridges with different temperatures in the range of 1100 - 1300°C and clay contents from 10 - 50 wt%. Following the infiltration of methyl methacrylate, we measured the mechanical properties to assess whether they were improved by the asperities. It was confirmed that the asperities improved the bending strength by 10%, and the anchoring effect was observed on the fracture surface.