Biomineralization: Systematics of organic-directed controls on carbonate growth morphologies and kinetics determined by in situ AFM. Final report

During the three years of this project, tremendous progress has been made in understanding the microscopic kinetic controls on calcite growth and in investigations of amino acid controls on modifying crystal growth and dissolution. The project began with a focus on the aspartate-calcite system because previous studies have found that acidic matrix macromolecules involved in the regulation of biological crystal growth usually contain aspartic acid-rick domains. Indeed, several studies have shown that aspartate (Asp) modifies the growth morphology of calcite. Aspartate-rich proteins and {beta}-sheet polyaspartate adsorbed on sulfonated polystyrene surfaces were shown to stabilize {l_brace}0001{r_brace} growth surfaces. It was also shown that aspartate also stabilizes the prismatic {l_brace}1{bar 1}00{r_brace} growth forms. For the first time, the author has an understanding of the microscopic controls of aspartate on growth and dissolution