Nacre-Inspired Structural Composites: Performance-Enhancement Strategy and Perspective

For modern material engineering, one of the most ambitious goals is to develop lightweight structural materials with superior strength and toughness. Nacre, a typical biomaterial with high mechanical performance, has always inspired synthesis of high-performance structural composites. Here, the synthesis strategies for further enhancing the strength and toughness of novel nacre-inspired structural composites, including ternary artificial nacre, artificial nacre reinforced by bridges, and those with an ultrahigh content of a hard phase, are reviewed. Also, the challenges and outlook for preparing lighter, stronger, and tougher structural composites are discussed.