Nanostructural studies of biomineralised composites

摘要

Scanning and transmission electron microscopy has been applied to study the microstructural detail in the shell of the rock boring mollusc Pholas-dactylus. A cross-lamellar structure was revealed consisting of a hierarchical arrangement of sub-micron sized aragonitic laths. These laths themselves consisted of a series of <110> twinned crystallites 5 to 400nm in width and several micron in length. HREM analysis indicate the twin boundaries within the crystallites to be defect free.