Nano mechanical behaviors of hindleg cuticle in beetle Dorcus titanus (Coleoptera: Lucanidae)

摘要

Biomaterials have a hierarchical structure with outstanding mechanical properties that are far beyond those additional engineering materials. Nano indentation techniques are convenient to study the biological materials. In this paper, the nano mechanical behavors of hindleg cuticle in beetle Dorcus titanus were investigated. The results indicate that the hardness and modulus values of hindleg cuticle outside are far higher than that of inside as well as the front podomere cuticle outside has a softer stiffness than that of the middle podomere cuticle outside, which is exactly contrary to the cuticle inside anyway. The primary formation factor probably is related to the different epicuticle and exocuticle with different thickness. Mechanics theories on the stiffness, hardness, strength and toughness of biomaterials can be expected to play a key role in developing bio-inspired multi-functional and hierarchical materials in future.