Aragonite twinning in gastropod nacre

Aragonite twinning in gastropod nacre has been investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron back-scattered diffraction (EBSD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with the focused ion beam (FIB) sample preparation technique. At the growth front of nacre, Haliotis discus hannai and Omphalius rusticus form a “stack-of-coins” structures, which consist of pseudo-hexagonal and elliptical aragonite tablets, respectively. SEM, EBSD, and TEM analyses revealed that these tablets are monolithic single crystal and almost free of the {1 1 0} twins that are common in aragonite of biotic or abiotic origin. The longest diagonal of the hexagon and the longer axis of the ellipse are parallel to the a-axis of aragonite. The crystal orientation of each tablet in a stack, measured by TEM-Kikuchi pattern analysis, is almost the same but there is occasionally {1 1 0} twin-like relationship between adjacent tablets along the stacking. On the other hand, the fibrous aragonite layer formed prior to the nacreous structure is composed of polycrystalline aragonite with high density of {1 1 0} twins. TEM observation suggests that the interlamellar organic sheet prevents the inheritance of the twins, by selecting only single domain of the twins, through the mineral bridge.