The Growth and Mechanical Properties of Abalone Nacre Mesolayer

Abalone nacre has long been interesting to material engineers due to its fascinating structure and outstanding mechanical behavior. It is a self-organized biogenic mineral composite which has a hierarchical architecture composite. The main component of this structure is "block and mortar" like tablets. Between the tablets structures is a layered structure which consist of both organic and inorganic parts called mesolayer. This research focus on the growth behavior of the mesolayer structure and its mechanical influence on nacre. Fresh-grown nacre is harvested by the "flat pearl" technique under different temperature schemes. SEM observation of those nacre reveals temperature scheme will inhibits the growth of tablets structure, and form other layered structure. The mechanical property of harvested "flat pearl" is tested by nano-indentation. In this work, we aim to show the mechanic significance of mesolayer in nacre structure, and hope to establish its strengthening and growth mechanism.