Valuable insights from the imitation of the skeleton of
natural sea sponges
Scientists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and
the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) in Germany have created a
new synthetic hybrid material with a mineral content of almost 90 percent, yet
extremely flexible. They imitated the structural elements found in most sea
sponges and recreated the sponge spicules using the natural mineral calcium
carbonate and a protein of the sponge. Natural minerals are usually very hard
and prickly, as fragile as porcelain. Amazingly, the synthetic spicules are
superior to their natural counterparts in terms of flexibility, exhibiting a
rubber-like flexibility. The synthetic spicules can, for example, easily be
U-shaped without breaking or showing any signs of fracture This highly unusual
characteristic, described by the German researchers in the current issue of
Science, is mainly due to the part of organic substances in the new hybrid
material. It is about ten times as much as in natural spicules.