Herringbone Structure Of Nanometer Aragonite Sheets Of Chamidae Shell

Keywords

Aragonite sheets; Chamidae shell; Herringbone structure; Stiffness and toughness; Volume fracture

Abstract

The observation of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) on the shell of a Chamidae shows that the shell is a kind of biocomposite consisting of aragonite layers with large volume fraction and collagen proteins with small volume fraction. Similar to man-made composites, the aragonite layers are parallel to the surface of the shell and consist of many long and thin aragonite sheets. The thickness of the aragonite sheets is within nanometer scale. It is also found that the aragonite sheets in different aragonite layers possess different orientations, which compose a kind of herringbone structure. The reason of the high stiffness of the shell is investigated based on the analysis of the proportion of the components in the shell. The origin of the high fracture toughness of the shell is explored from the comparison of the maximum pullout force of the herringbone structure with that of the parallel structure of the aragonite sheets. It is revealed that the large volume fraction of the aragonite endows the shell with high stiffness, and that the herringbone structure of the aragonite sheets endows the shell with high fracture toughness.

Publication Date

7-1-2016

Publication Title

Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

Volume

16

Issue

7

Number of Pages

7175-7180

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1166/jnn.2016.11312

Socpus ID

84979021477 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84979021477

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