Three-dimensional printing of molluscan shell inspired architectures via fused deposition modeling

Nature always astonishes us with its marvelous creations which act as a model for acquiring a solution to complex human problems, this practice of designing and manufacturing the product replicating processes that occur in nature is referred to as biomimicking. Molluscan shell is nature's one such offering that delivers remarkable mechanical properties by virtue of its hierarchical multi-layered structure. In this work, a peculiar avenue for facile biomimicking multitudinous molluscan shell architectures such as complex cross lamellar, cross lamellar, foliated, prismatic, columnar nacre, and sheet nacre structure are manufactured by 3D prototyping of biodegradable, biocompatible polylactic acid (PLA). Here, the reliance of mechanical attributes of PLA on various architectures is studied and demonstrated that the nacre, owing to its complex structure, leads to high energy dissipation (12.5094 J/m) imparting high toughness.