Nacre, also known as “nature’s armour”, is made up of a brick-and-mortar architecture in which hard bricks of aragonite are sandwiched together with soft biopolymer layers (the mortar). Now, a team at the University of Virginia in the US has made composites from graphene and aluminium that have the same type of structure as nacre’s but which have an even higher strength and toughness. Compared with aluminium on its own, the new bioinspired composite has a 210% improved hardness, 223% improved strength and 78% improved stiffness. It might find use in applications such as vehicles (cars, planes and trains), in which lower weight is important, as well as in next-generation electronics devices that call for strong, stiff and tough components that conduct heat well.

Nanostructured materials have emerged as an alternative to enhance the figure of merit (ZT) of thermoelectric (TE) devices. Graphene exhibits a high electrical conductivity (in-plane) that is necessary for a high ZT; however, this effect is countered by its impressive thermal conductivity.