Growth behaviour of silica/carbonate nanocrystalline composites of calcite and aragonite

Growth behaviour of silica/carbonate nanocrystalline composites of calcite and aragonite

Gan Zhang, Juan Morales and Juan Manuel García-Ruiz, J. Mater. Chem. B, 2017, 5, 1658. Download paper. The precipitation of barium and strontium carbonate in alkaline silica gels or silica solutions produces nanocrystalline self-assembled composite materials displaying biomimetic shapes and textures. We have crystallized concomitantly in time and space two anhydrous polymorphs of calcium carbonate, under similar conditions at different temperatures. The orthorhombic phase aragonite produces nanocrystalline aggregates exhibiting non-crystallographic morphologies and complex textures characteristic…

Read More

Three study cases of growth morphology in minerals: Halite, calcite and gypsum

Three study cases of growth morphology in minerals: Halite, calcite and gypsum

Aquilano, D.; Otálora, F.; Pastero, L.; García-Ruiz, J. M., Progress in Crystal Growth and Characterization of Materials 2016, 62 (2), 227-251. Download paper. Beyond fundamental aspects of crystal growth and morphology, the growth of minerals is a challenging subject because in most cases we face a problem with unknown growth conditions. Actually, in the field of geological studies, we have to decipher the growth conditions of a crystal using the information contained in the very…

Read More

The role of CaCO3o neutral pair in calcium carbonate crystallization

The role of CaCO3o neutral pair in calcium carbonate crystallization

Genovese, D.; Montalti, M.; Otálora, F.; Gómez-Morales, J.; Sancho-Tomás, M.; Falini, G.; García-Ruiz, J. M., Crystal Growth & Design 2016. Download paper. The molecular structure of the units that get incorporated into the nuclei of the crystalline phase and sustain their growth is a fundamental issue in the pathway from a supersaturated solution to the formation of crystals. Using a fluorescent dye we have recorded the variation of the pH value in time along a…

Read More

Diffusion and Precipitation Processes in Iron-Based Silica Gardens

Diffusion and Precipitation Processes in Iron-Based Silica Gardens

Glaab, F.; Rieder, J.; Garcia-Ruiz, J. M.; Kunz, W.; Kellermeier, M., Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 2016. Download paper. Silica gardens are tubular structures that form along the interface of multivalent metal salts and alkaline solutions of sodium silicate, driven by a complex interplay of osmotic and buoyant forces together with chemical reaction. They display peculiar plant-like morphologies and thus can be considered as one of the few examples for the spontaneous biomimetic self-ordering of purely…

Read More

A Global Scale Scenario for Prebiotic Chemistry: Silica-Based Self-Assembled Mineral Structures and Formamide

A Global Scale Scenario for Prebiotic Chemistry: Silica-Based Self-Assembled Mineral Structures and Formamide

Saladino, R.; Botta, G.; Bizzarri, B. M.; Di Mauro, E.; Garcia Ruiz, J. M., Biochemistry 2016, 55 (19), 2806-2811. Download paper. The pathway from simple abiotically made organic compounds to the molecular bricks of life, as we know it, is unknown. The most efficient geological abiotic route to organic compounds results from the aqueous dissolution of olivine, a reaction known as serpentinization (Sleep, N.H., et al. (2004) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 101, 12818–12822). In…

Read More

Growth Behavior of Monohydrocalcite (CaCO3·H2O) in Silica-Rich Alkaline Solution

Growth Behavior of Monohydrocalcite (CaCO3·H2O) in Silica-Rich Alkaline Solution

Zhang, G.; Delgado-López, J. M.; Choquesillo-Lazarte, D.; García-Ruiz, J. M., Crystal Growth & Design 2015, 15 (2), 564-572. Download paper. Monohydrocalcite (CaCO3·H2O) has been crystallized in silica-rich alkaline water solution. The crystallization proceeds by a counterdiffusion method without the presence of any other additive except dissolved silica. The crystallization has been followed in situ by optical microscopy and Raman microspectroscopy, while the time evolution of the pH and the concentration of calcium and silica species…

Read More

Sobre los Experimentos de Creación de Vida de Andrew Crosse

Garcia-Ruiz, J. M., Macla 2015, 20, 61-62. Uno de los personajes más exitosos y conocidos de la historia de la literatura y el cine de ficción es el creado por la escritora Mary Shelley en 1817 en su libro “Frankenstein o el moderno Prometeo”. Paradójicamente, uno de los científicos menos conocidos y más misteriosos de la historia de la ciencia británica es Andrew Crosse, el individuo real en el que, según se suele afirmar, Mary…

Read More

Electra Kotopoulou

Electra Kotopoulou

University of Granada, started 2015 Hi! I am a Greek PhD student at CSIC-UGR and I joined J.M. García-Ruiz group and Prometheus team in October of 2015. I hold a BSc in Geology and a MSc focused in Geochemistry-Mineralogy, from the University of Athens. During my Master thesis I studied S-Fe-As mineralogy, speciation and geochemistry in marine sediment cores from the shallow-sea hydrothermal vents of Milos volcanic island (HVA, Greece) with the use of various…

Read More

LEC goes back to Space!

LEC goes back to Space!

Prof. Garcia-Ruiz organized the 1st ‘International Training School on Crystallography for Space Sciences’, supported by the COSPAR, the IUCr, the INAOE and the BUAP with the participation of scientists from UNAM, NASA, ESA, the University of Groningen, the Laüe-Langevin Institute, the UVa-CSIC, the Hokkaido University, the IPGP, the Tohoku University and the McMaster University. For 17 days the 30 MSc-/PhD-students and Post-Doc researchers that attended the School received intensive courses about Crystal Growth, Symmetry and…

Read More
1 2 3 4 5