Biomimicry of Limpet Teeth with Hybrid Colloidal Liquid Crystals: Mechanical Enhancement by Structural Orderliness from Self-Assembly

The teeth of limpets, consisting of orderly aligned hard goethite (iron oxyhydroxides) nanocrystals and flexible chitin microfibers, are one of the hardest and stiffest biomaterials found in nature. However, the replication of their composition and ordered microstructures to artificial biomimetic materials remains a challenge. Here, we fabricated large-sized limpet tooth analogues with hierarchically ordered structures by applying long-range orientational control to the short-scale self-assembly of hybrid colloidal liquid crystals formed by chitin nanocrystals and goethite nanorods. The obtained lightweight composite laminates exhibited excellent bending resistance compared with biomaterials, cements, and ceramics. These results suggest that the mass production of structurally ordered materials with high strength and toughness may be achieved using lyotropic liquid crystals.