Nanocrystalline structures in calcium carbonate biominerals

Alejandro Rodriguez-Navarro; Concepción Jimenez-Lopez; Angeles Hernandez-Hernandez; Antonio Checa; Juan Manuel Garcia-Ruiz

doi:10.1117/1.3062826

1 December 2008 Nanocrystalline structures in calcium carbonate biominerals

Alejandro Rodriguez-Navarro, Concepción Jimenez-Lopez, Angeles Hernandez-Hernandez, Antonio Checa, Juan Manuel Garcia-Ruiz

Author Affiliations +

Journal of Nanophotonics, Vol. 2, Issue 1, 021935 (December 2008). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.3062826

Abstract

Biological carbonate mineralization induced by both microorganisms and higher phyla organisms is very important in many different natural processes. The organisms precipitate calcium carbonate to form very sophisticated biomaterials that they used for many different functions. Organisms control calcium carbonate precipitation using specific organic macromolecules which are released at specific times and regulate crystal growth. Calcium carbonate crystals are formed and arranged in several representative biomaterials (e.g., avian eggshell, mollusk nacre and bacterially induced precipitates). Through these examples, we get an insight on how organisms are not only able to precipitate calcium carbonate but also comprehensively on how organisms control this process, during the nucleation, polymorphism selection and crystal growth stages, resulting in materials which highly reproducible characteristics at different scales from the nano- to the millimeter scale. The ordered arrangement of crystals in these materials is in part controlled by the organic matrix and in part determined by self-organization processes.

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Alejandro Rodriguez-Navarro, Concepción Jimenez-Lopez, Angeles Hernandez-Hernandez, Antonio Checa, and Juan Manuel Garcia-Ruiz "Nanocrystalline structures in calcium carbonate biominerals," Journal of Nanophotonics 2(1), 021935 (1 December 2008). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.3062826

Published: 1 December 2008

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