Fig. 2: Investigating the construction mechanisms and morphological structure of BM-plastic.

a Schematic procedure diagrams for the fabrication of BM-plastic. Each element of schematic procedure diagram was conceived by the authors of this work and drawn using Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 and 3ds Max 2018 software. b A digital photo of the BM-gel, showing the contrast between the vertical section (without ethanol stimulation) and the horizontal section (with ethanol stimulation). c XRD pattern of BM-gel and BM-plastic. d Investigating the SAXS curves of BM-gel and BM-plastic. e SEM images of BM-gel and BM-plastic. f Comparison of SAXS 2D patterns between BM-gel and BM-plastic. g Comparison of WAXS 2D patterns between BM-gel and BM-plastic. h Digital images of BM-gel with flexibility and BM-plastic with toughness and robustness.