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Protein‐Assisted Synthesis of Double‐Shelled CaCO 3 Microcapsules and Their Mineralization with Heavy Metal Ions
Author(s) -
Li Xuan Qi,
Feng Zhiwei,
Xia Yinyan,
Zeng Hua Chun
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201102877
Subject(s) - mineralization (soil science) , biocompatibility , metal ions in aqueous solution , chemistry , cytotoxicity , metal , sorption , calcium carbonate , caco 2 , biodegradation , biomineralization , carbonate , biophysics , chemical engineering , biochemistry , cell , organic chemistry , in vitro , biology , adsorption , nitrogen , engineering
Calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) is one of the most abundant and important biominerals in nature. Due to its biocompatibility, biodegradability and nontoxicity, CaCO 3 has been investigated extensively in recent years for various fundamental properties and technological applications. Inspired by basic wall structures of cells, we report a protein‐assisted approach to synthesize CaCO 3 into a double‐shelled structural configuration. Due to varying reactivities of outer and inner shells, the CaCO 3 microcapsules exhibit different sorption capacities and various resultant structures toward different kinds of heavy metal ions, analogical to biologically controlled mineralization (BCM) processes. Surprisingly, three mineralization modes resembling those found in BCM were found with these bacterium‐like “CaCO 3 cells”. Our investigation of the cytotoxicity (MTT assay protocol) also indicates that the CaCO 3 microcapsules have almost no cytotoxicity against HepG2 cells, and they might be useful for future application of detoxifying heavy metal ions after further study.