Fig. 3: Coral-inspired structural composites.
a, b Schematic of the 3D-printed polymer structure with conductive coating and the actual coated structure. c, d Schematic of the formed mineral phase and the actual mineral phase reconstructed from the CT scanning. e An image of the actual coral-inspired mineralized composite sample and (f) the corresponding 3D image constructed from the CT scanning. g Force-displacement curves of coral-inspired mineralized composites under unnotched two-section compact shear tests. The inset shows the schematic for the unnotched two-section compact shear test. h Force-displacement curves of coral-inspired mineralized composites under notched single-section compact shear tests. The inset shows the schematic for the notched single-section compact shear test. i Shear strength (τmax) and shear fracture toughness (GII) of coral-inspired mineralized composites with various electrochemical reaction days. j The morphology of the fracture interface of the coral-inspired mineralized composite under the notched single-section compact shear test. The fracture interface is imaged with SEM. The inset shows the crack location in the notched single-section compact shear test. k Ashby diagram of CO2 uptake (rc) versus specific shear strength (τmax/ρ) and (l) Ashby diagram of CO2 uptake (rc) versus specific shear fracture toughness (GII/ρ) of the coral-inspired structure (Day 6) compared with natural nacre and other state-of-the-art carbon-reducing composites. The numbers in circles are reference numbers.
