Zhang, G., Verdugo-Escamilla, C., Choquesillo-Lazarte, D., & García-Ruiz, J. M. (2018). Thermal assisted self-organization of calcium carbonate. Nature communications, 9(1), 1-7.
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Fabrication of mineral multi-textured architectures by self-organization is a formidable
challenge for engineering. Current approaches follow a biomimetic route for hybrid materials
based on the coupling of carbonate and organic compounds. We explore here the chemical
coupling of silica and carbonate, leading to fabrication of inorganic–inorganic biomimetic
structures known as silica-carbonate biomorphs. So far, biomorphic structures were
restricted to orthorhombic barium, strontium, and calcium carbonate. We demonstrate that,
monohydrocalcite a hydrous form of calcium carbonate with trigonal structure can also form
biomorphic structures, thus showing biomorphic growth is not dictated by the carbonate
crystal structure. We show that it is possible to control the growth regime, and therefore
the texture and overall shape, by tuning the growth temperature, thereby shifting the
textural pattern within the production of a given architecture. This finding opens a promising
route to the fabrication of complex multi-textured self-organized material made of silica
and chalk.