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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 July 2020
Formation and growth mechanisms of biological hard tissues are relevant in biomimetics for obtaining lessons in the assembly of complex and ordered microstructures for engineering applications. Shells of mollusks offer examples of organic/inorganic hybrid structures with nanoscale order that produce functionally-gradient macroarchitectures. Here, the nacre/prismatic interface of red abalone (Haliotis rufescens) was topographically profiled with an atomic force microscope (Park Scientific PC) using contact mode in air to elucidate growth characteristics of the shell. The results give a quantitative (spatial and temporal) measure of how nacre (N) grows over the prismatic (P) section of the shell.
Nine regions, with a length of 350 µm parallel to the growing edge and a width of 120 µm, were scanned (e.g., Figs 1 & 2). Raster scanning from N to the P sections revealed that the rms roughness of the surface tends to increase from N to P region with the latter having topographical height variations of up to 5 µm at the growing edge.
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