“Wandering meatloaf” snail’s teeth may improve solar cells
15 Feb 2013 by Evoluted New Media
Materials Science
The teeth of a marine snail can be used to create less expensive, more efficient nanoscale materials to improve solar cells and lithium-ion batteries. David Kisailus’, an assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside’s Bourns College of Engineering, research focused on the gumboot chiton. This mollusc is found along the shores of the Pacific Ocean from central California to Alaska and is the largest type of chiton, growing up to a foot in length. It has leathery upper skin, which is usually reddish-brown and is nicknamed “wandering meatloaf.”
Kisailus uses nature as inspiration to design next generation engineering products and materials. He has previously determined that the chiton teeth contain magnetite, the hardest biomaterial known on Earth which is also magnetic. He set out to find out how the hard and magnetic outer region of the tooth forms.
“Incredibly, all of this occurs at room temperature and under environmentally benign conditions. This makes it appealing to utilize similar strategies to make nanomaterials in a cost-effective matter,” he said.
His findings demonstrate that the process occurs in three steps. First, hydrate iron oxide (ferrihydrite) crystals nucleate on a fibre-like chitinous organic template. Then, the crystals convert to a magnetic iron oxide through a solid-state transformation. Finally, the magnetite particles grow along the organic fibres, making parallel rods within the mature teeth resulting in a hard and tough structure.
Kisailus is going to use these natural steps as inspiration in his lab to grow the minerals used in solar cells and lithium-ion batteries. He believes that by controlling the crystal size, shape and orientation of engineering nanomaterials, he will be able to build materials that will allow more efficient operation of these products.
Using the chiton teeth model has another advantage as the engineering nanocrystals can be grown at a significantly lower temperature resulting in lower production costs.
The research is published in Advanced Functional Materials.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/%28ISSN%291616-3028
