Abstract
Biomimetics is a growing field, and abalone shells have become a recently studied topic because of their amazing strength properties. Their shell is composed of calcium carbonate, and it is formed by the mollusk in a unique structure of interlocking tablets called nacre, also known as mother of pearl. There has been much interest in the interactions between tablets, but there are also structural growth lines that occur between layers of nacre that have been unnoticed by other researchers. With these additional non-nacre layers, the material’s strength is increased. We show how abalones can be cultured with changes in temperature to adjust shell and nacre growth. Then, they are tested using nanoindentation for qualitative mechanical data. In all, we aim to utilize the abalone nacre architecture based on these composite layers for improved strength applications such as protective armor.
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© 2015 The Society for Experimental Mechanics, Inc.
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Sullivan, M., Prorok, B.C. (2015). Controlling Abalone Shell Architecture with Temperature. In: Barthelat, F., Korach, C., Zavattieri, P., Prorok, B., Grande-Allen, K. (eds) Mechanics of Biological Systems and Materials, Volume 7. Conference Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Mechanics Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06974-6_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06974-6_4
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