Microstructures and chemical compositions of scallop shells from Probolinggo, East Java

Abstract Asian moon scallops ( Amusium pleuronectes ) are harvested in Indonesia and South East Asia Region as seafood. This species can be found in Probolinggo, East Java and they are especially abundant during January-March. Apart from its muscle, the shells of the scallops can also potentially be utilized for industrial needs e.g. in the field of biomedical applications. In this paper, the investigations of the microstructure and the chemical compositions of the shells of A. pleuronectes with different sizes by means of SEM and EDX, respectively, are reported. The inspection on the microstructures of the surface and cross-sections of the shells using SEM reveals different microstructures of scallop shells of different sizes. According to the EDX measurements, the chemical compositions of the shells consist of predominant Ca contents. A slight difference in chemical compositions of the shells of different scallop’s sizes is also observed. This result gives an insight into the physical properties of the local species of scallops and its great potential especially in biomedical applications.