Calcium Carbonate Mineralization in a Surface-Tension-Confined Droplets Array

Abstract

Calcium carbonate biomimetic crystallization remains a topic of interest with respect to biomineralization areas in recent research. It is not easy to conduct high-throughput experiments with only a few macromolecule reagents using conventional experimental methods. However, the emergence of microdroplet array technology provides the possibility to solve these issues efficiently. In this article, surface-tension-confined droplet arrays were used to fabricate calcium carbonate. It was found that calcium carbonate crystallization can be conducted in surface-tension-confined droplets. Defects were found on the surface of some crystals, which were caused by liquid flow inside the droplet and the rapid drop in droplet height during the evaporation. The diameter and number of crystals were related to the droplet diameter. Polyacrylic acid (PAA), added as a modified organic molecule control, changed the CaCO3 morphology from calcite to vaterite. The material products of the above experiments were compared with bulk-synthesized calcium carbonate by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy and other characterization methods. Our work proves the possibility of performing biomimetic crystallization and biomineralization experiments on surface-tension-confined microdroplet arrays.

Process optimization for the rapid conversion of calcite into hydroxyapatite microspheres for chromatographic applications

“…2 b), comprised of an aggregation of many tiny crystals (Fig. 2 b) 16 . The SEM analysis showed that we obtained monodisperse particles (Fig.…”

Biological Crystallization

“…At the laboratory scale, it is not easy to carry out high-throughput experiments with only a few macromolecule reagents using conventional experimental methods. In the fourth paper, He et al [4] explore the surface-tension-confined droplet arrays technique to fabricate CaCO 3 using polyacrylic acid as a modified organic molecule control. These authors prove the possibility of performing biomimetic crystallization and biomineralization experiments using this technique.…”