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Synchrotron x-ray microbeam diffraction from abalone shell

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

E. DiMasi  and
M. Sarikaya
E. DiMasi*
Affiliation:
Physics Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11975
M. Sarikaya
Affiliation:
Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
*
a) Address all correspondence to this author. e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Microstructured biomaterials such as mollusk shells receive much attention at present, due to the promise that advanced materials can be designed and synthesized with biomimetic techniques that take advantage of self-assembly and aqueous, ambient processing conditions. A satisfactory understanding of this process requires characterization of the microstructure not only in the mature biomaterial, but at the growth fronts where the control over crystal morphology and orientation is enacted. In this paper, we present synchrotron microbeam x-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron microscopy observations near the nacre–prismatic interface of red abalone shell. The relative orientations of calcite and aragonite grains exhibit some differences from the idealizations reported previously. Long calcite grains impinge the nacre–prismatic boundary at 45° angles, suggestive of nucleation on (104) planes followed by growth along the c axis. In the region within 100 μm of the boundary, calcite and aragonite crystals lose their bulk orientational order, but we found no evidence for qualitative changes in long-range order such as ideal powder texture or an amorphous structure factor. XRD rocking curves determined the mosaic of calcite crystals in the prismatic region to be no broader than the 0.3° resolution limit of the beamline’s capillary optics, comparable to what can be measured on geological calcite single crystals.

Keywords

BiomimeticMicrostructureX-ray diffraction (XRD)
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Materials Research , Volume 19 , Issue 5 , May 2004 , pp. 1471 - 1476
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2004

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References

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