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Amino Acid Assisted Incorporation of Dye Molecules within Calcite Crystals
Author(s) -
Marzec Bartosz,
Green David C.,
Holden Mark A.,
Coté Alexander S.,
Ihli Johannes,
Khalid Saba,
Kulak Alexander,
Walker Daniel,
Tang Chiu,
Duffy Dorothy M.,
Kim YiYeoun,
Meldrum Fiona C.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.201804365
Subject(s) - calcite , molecule , amino acid , chemistry , crystal (programming language) , combinatorial chemistry , organic chemistry , mineralogy , biochemistry , computer science , programming language
Biomineralisation processes invariably occur in the presence of multiple organic additives, which act in combination to give exceptional control over structures and properties. However, few synthetic studies have investigated the cooperative effects of soluble additives. This work addresses this challenge and focuses on the combined effects of amino acids and coloured dye molecules. The experiments demonstrate that strongly coloured calcite crystals only form in the presence of Brilliant Blue R (BBR) and four of the seventeen soluble amino acids, as compared with almost colourless crystals using the dye alone. The active amino acids are identified as those which themselves effectively occlude in calcite, suggesting a mechanism where they can act as chaperones for individual molecules or even aggregates of dyes molecules. These results provide new insight into crystal–additive interactions and suggest a novel strategy for generating materials with target properties.