Fish Tooth Enamel Key to Lighter Vehicles?

Queensland University of Technology physics professor John Barry is looking to put some bite into the auto industry.

The Australian researcher is studying the tooth enamel of lungfish and garfish as the basis for new material to make lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Barry, from the university's Faculty of Science and Technology, says looking into a fish's mouth is not as offbeat as it seems.

“The impetus for my work is the need to find better, new materials, because the vast improvements made over the past 60 years will not continue unless there is constant innovation,” he says in a statement.

The study of teeth allowed the researcher to learn from nature. “Teeth in different animals have been adapted or ‘engineered’ for various purposes,” Barry says.

For engineering purposes, teeth are composite materials with properties much superior to any existing synthetic composite.

“We started with lungfish because they are an ancient animal and we thought their tooth structure would be much simpler than modern animals that have undergone many more evolutionary changes,” he says.

“We were surprised to find the lungfish has a complex tooth microstructure. We are also studying garfish because they have hardwearing teeth.”

Lungfish, also known as salamanderfish, are freshwater creatures with long, snakelike bodies that can be found in Australia, South America and Africa. They have changed little in the last million years.

The garfish is an elongated, needle-shaped species with a mouth full of rows of sharp teeth used to eat a live meal.

Barry says teeth are composed 95% by weight of the mineral hydroxyapatite, which on its own is very weak, but when used by a living system is tough and durable.

The researcher is studying the tooth structure at three levels to model its strength in different situations.

“I am looking at dentine's crystals, which have various shapes and surface habits and then looking at the way the crystals are arranged in different bundles,” he says. “Also, how the tooth surface is arranged to cut, crush or grind food.”

Barry says by copying some of the structures in teeth, it should be possible to make composites that could be used more widely in vehicles, for example.