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Growth of hierarchical calcium carbonate crystals templated by biomolecules of lotus root
Author(s) -
Chen Long,
Hu Fengkai,
Zhou Quan,
Sun Jinyu,
Zhang Hui
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
crystal research and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.377
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1521-4079
pISSN - 0232-1300
DOI - 10.1002/crat.200900446
Subject(s) - calcium carbonate , calcite , lotus , biomolecule , nucleation , crystallization , biomineralization , crystal growth , vaterite , chemical engineering , chemistry , crystal (programming language) , lotus effect , aqueous solution , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , materials science , aragonite , crystallography , mineralogy , nanotechnology , organic chemistry , botany , raw material , programming language , computer science , engineering , biology
In this paper, crystal growth of calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) in the presence of biomolecules of lotus root was investigated. Scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X‐ray powder diffractometry were used to characterize the products. The results indicate that calcite spherical particles were constructed from small rhombohedral subunits. Similar CaCO 3 crystals were also gained when crystal growth of CaCO 3 in aqueous solution containing extracts of lotus root was performed, suggesting that the soluble biomolecules of lotus root play a crucial role in directing the formation of hierarchical calcite spherical particles. The possible formation mechanism of the CaCO 3 crystals by using lotus root is also discussed, which can be interpreted by particle‐aggregation based non‐classical crystallization laws. The biomolecules of lotus root might induce and control the nucleation and growth of calcium carbonate crystals. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)