3. Bio-inspired composites and ceramics

Drawing inspiration from certain natural structures can potentially transform the use of ceramic materials by increasing their toughness. Over the past fifteen years, advances in this field have involved firstly the development of processes capable of reproducing certain aspects of the microstructure of natural materials, and then the study of microstructure in relation to properties. We will see that the most widely used compositions are based on alumina (alpha aluminum oxide, Al ₂ O ₃ ), one of the most widely used structural ceramics, and hydroxyapatite (calcium phosphate, Ca ₅ (PO ₄ ) ₃ (OH))