Bone sheath mimic has smart material potential

Nature has inspired many ‘smart’ materials, and Australian researchers believe that they have now added another. A fabric that can mimic the properties of periosteum, a tissue that surrounds bone in the body, could be the basis for protective clothing, medical equipment, and even safer tyres, they claim.

Composed of collagen, elastin, and other structural proteins, periosteum has a complex three-dimensional structure that provides protection for bone under impact. A team led by Melissa Knothe Tate of the University of New South Wales and including biomedical engineers, experts in art and design, bio imaging specialists and orthopaedic surgeons, has now achieved proof of concept for a fabric that can mimic these properties.

In a paper in the journal Nature Scientific Reports, the team explains how it mapped the tissue architecture of natural periosteum, used 3D imaging software to visualise the architecture, scaled up its key components in CAD and produced prototypes using an advanced jacquard loom. "The challenge with using collagen and elastin is their fibres, that are too small to fit into the loom," Knothe Tate said. "So we use elastic threads that mimic elastin and silk threads that mimic collagen."