Thermally Induced Aragonite-Calcite Transformation in Freshwater Pearl: A Mutual Relation with the Thermal Dehydration of Included Water.

This study focuses on the relationship between the aragonite-calcite (A-C) transformation and the thermal dehydration of included water in the biomineralized aragonite construction using freshwater pearl. These thermally induced processes occur in the same temperature region. The thermal dehydration of included water was characterized through thermoanalytical investigations as an overlapping of three dehydration steps. Each dehydration step was separated through kinetic deconvolution analysis, and the kinetic parameters were determined. A single-step behavior of the A-C transformation was evidenced using high-temperature X-ray diffractometry and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry for the heat-treated samples. The kinetics of the A-C transformation was analyzed using the conversion curves under isothermal and linear nonisothermal conditions. The A-C transformation occurred in the corresponding temperature region of the thermal dehydration, ranging from the second half of the second dehydration step to the first half of the third dehydration step. Because the thermal dehydration process is constrained by the contracting geometry kinetics, the movement of the thermal dehydration reaction interface can be a trigger for the A-C transformation. In this scheme, the overall kinetics of the A-C transformation in the biomineralized aragonite construction is regulated by a contracting geometry.