Dielectric Properties of Seawater Molluscan Shells

The paper presents Dielectric data on different types of molluscan shells collected from Chennai seashore. It is observed that irrespective of species, the mineralogical from of CaCO₃ is aragonite. This is due to the fact that Mg present in the shell material acts as a regulator for the deposition of CaCO₃. It is interesting to note that dielectric parameters of aragonite are low when compared to shells and calcite. The significant variations in dielectric parameters such as dielectric constant, dielectric loss and electric conductivity of molluscan shells may be attributed to the free water that present in the shell as the composition if calcium carbonate and the components of the organic matrix of the shell is more or less the same irrespective of species.