Multiscale structure of sheet nacre.
type: Distribution
access URL: https://insu.hal.science/hal-00023492
format: HTML
issued: 2026-05-28T20:25:32.777445
modified: 2026-05-28T20:25:32.728174

test_moissonnage_selune
type: Agent

Multiscale structure of sheet nacre.
type: Dataset
contact point: Organization
  fn: CCSD
keyword: nacre
keyword: afm
keyword: nanocomposite
keyword: infoeu-reposemanticsarticle
keyword: journal-articles
keyword: aragonite
keyword: tem
keyword: sdustumisciences-of-the-universe-physicsearth-sciencesmineralogy
keyword: biomineralization
landing page: 0142-9612
description: This work was conducted on Pinctada maxima nacre (mother of pearl) in order to understand its multiscale ordering and the role of the organic matrix in its structure. Intermittent-contact atomic force microscopy with phase detection imaging reveals a nanostructure within the tablet. A continuous organic framework divides each tablet into nanograins. Their shape is supposed to be flat with a mean extension of 45 nm. TEM performed in the darkfield mode evidences that at least part of the intracrystalline matrix is crystallized and responds like a ‘single crystal'. The tablet is a ‘hybrid composite'. The organic matrix is continuous. The mineral phase is thus finely divided still behaving as a single crystal. It is proposed that each tablet results from the coherent aggregation of nanograins keeping strictly the same crystallographic orientation thanks to a hetero-epitaxy mechanism. Finally, high-resolution TEM performed on bridges from one tablet to the next, in the overlying row, did not permit to evidence a mineral lattice but crystallized organic bridges. The same organic bridges were evidenced by SEM in the interlaminar sequence.
issued: 2026-05-28T20:25:32.757906
language: en
modified: 2026-05-28T20:25:32.757912