Seashell-inspired glass is three times more shatter-resistant than ordinary glass

While glass is hard, durable and has many desirable optical properties, it is brittle and smashes easily. Nacre however, also known as mother-of-pearl, a substance produced by some molluscs is at once deformable and tough and a new nacre-like glass outperforms both laminate and tempered glasses.¹ The key to this performance is nacre’s 3D brick wall microstructure consisting of polygonal mineral bricks stacked in a staggered arrangement and held together by biopolymers.