Temperature effects on freshwater snail shells: Pomacea canaliculata Lamarck as investigated by XRD, EDX, SEM and FTIR techniques

In this study, the XRD, EDX, SEM and FTIR analyses are used for the characterization of the thermal decomposition process of Pomacea canaliculata Lamarck (PCL) samples. All these shells are abundant in Thailand. The shell was ground into fine powders. A set of four samples each was then separately annealed for 2 h in air atmosphere at 300 °C, 400 °C, 450 °C and 500 °C, respectively. The PCL shell mainly consists of aragonite and a fraction of calcite. If the PCL powder samples were annealed at a temperature higher than 450 °C, it resulted in an irreversible phase transformation from aragonite to calcite. The FTIR spectra analyses of PCL show that, after an annealing, the relative intensities of CO32− absorption bands and the intensities of OH− absorption band increased.