Nanostructured Ceramics through Self-assembly

The length scales defining structure and organization determine the fundamental characteristics of a material. Traditional ceramic materials exhibit organization on two length scales: the atomic scale, e.g., the unit cell of the crystal or the local arrangement of amorphous materials, and the scale of the grain size within the composite, typically much longer length and on the order of micrometers or greater. In biogenic materials, however, we observe a much broader range of organizational length scales: (1) a hierarchical organization always starts at the nanometer length scale, in which case, nanostructural design is the building block of larger scale composite structures; and (2) the nested levels of structural hierarchy appear to yield improved properties for particular functions (Aksay et al. 1994; NAP 1994).