Amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) is an important phase involved in calcification by a wide variety of invertebrate organisms and is of technological interest in the development of functional materials. Despite widespread scientific interest in this phase a full characterization of structure is lacking. This is mainly due to its metastability and difficulties in evaluating structure using conventional structure determination methods. Here we present new findings from the application of two techniques, pair distribution function analysis and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, which provide new insight to structural aspects of synthetic ACC. Several important results have emerged from this study of ACC formed in vitro using two common preparation methods: (1) ACC exhibits no structural coherence over distances > 15 Å and is truly amorphous; (2) most of the hydrogen in ACC is present as structural H 2 O, about half of which undergoes restricted motion on the millisecond time scale near room temperature;(3) the short-and intermediate-range structure of ACC shows no distinct match to any known structure in the calcium carbonate system; and (4) most of the carbonate in ACC is monodentate making it distinctly different from monohydrocalcite. Although the structure of synthetic ACC is still not fully understood, the results presented provide an important baseline for future experiments evaluating biogenic ACC and samples containing certain additives that may play a role in stabilization of ACC, crystallization kinetics, and final polymorph selection.

A facile approach to synthesize Zn(x)Cu(y)InS(1.5+x+0.5y) nanocrystal emitters was presented. The compositions of these nanocrystals were precisely controlled, and the relative PL quantum yields were up to 40%, with tunable emissions in 450-640 nm.

Interaction of phosphate with the surfaces of clays and metal oxyhydroxides is important for nutrient cycling in natural and agricultural systems. We examined the specific adsorption of phosphate to boehmite (gamma-AlOOH) by solid-state (31)P NMR spectroscopy, which yields evidence for the presence of two bridging bidentate surface complexes differing in protonation. For samples prepared along the sorption isotherm at pH 5, distinct phosphate environments are observed as two major peaks in (31)P NMR spectra (chemical shifts of 0 and -6 ppm) that show little change in relative intensity with adsorbate loading. Both peaks correspond to rigid phosphate in close proximity to H, as indicated by (31)P{(1)H} cross-polarization magic-angle-spinning (CP/MAS) data, and yield nearly identical (31)P{(27)Al} dephasing curves in rotational echo adiabatic passage double resonance (REAPDOR) experiments. The REAPDOR results indicate that both phosphate environments have similar coordination to Al and are best fit by dephasing curves simulated for bridging bidentate configurations. The two resolved phosphate species exhibit distinct (31)P chemical shift anisotropy (CSA) and intensity variations with pH, the peak near 0 ppm being dominant at pH > 7. (31)P CSA's from quantum chemical calculations of hydrated bidentate cluster models with varying protonation state show that the CSA for monoprotonated phosphate is unique and closely matches that for the peak at -6 ppm. The CSA for the peak at 0 ppm is consistent with both di- and nonprotonated phosphate, but assignment to the latter is suggested based on the dominance of this peak in samples prepared at high pH and with trends in (31)P NMR chemical shifts.