10-03 :: March 2010
nanotimes
News in Brief
Right: One photograph shows a bent disc of the nacre-pa- per (9cm in diameter and 0.06mm thickness), demonstra- ting a reasonable flexibility of the material. The inset shows the good optical translucency of the same material with the name of the group placed behind it. © Andreas Walther / Helsinki University of Technology/ Aalto University, Finland
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The second image shows a SEM image of the cross section of the nacre paper. It exhibits a layered arrangement of the inorganic clay platelets, each clay having a thickness of about 1nm and lateral dimensions of 50-1000nm. © Andreas Walther / Helsinki University of Technology/ Aalto University, Finland
A third image shows a scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of the cross section of natural nacre, exhibiting the layered arrangement of CaCO3
aragonite mineral platelets. The
thickness of these platelets is 0.4 x 0.5 microns and the lateral dimension are around 10-20 microns. © Andreas Walther / Helsinki University of Technology/ Aalto University, Finland
So the materials are similar in structure albeit having diffe- rent dimensions. The layered arrangement of hard and soft materials are very much alike in both materials.