Controlled crystallization of CaCO3 under stearic acid monolayers

The Biomimetic Mineralization Closer to a Real Biomineralization

“…Due to the various experimental difficulties of observing crystal growth in living molluscs, scientists have sought out suitable model systems for mimicking biomineralization processes to reflect the mineral/matrix interactions active at the atomic or molecular level of structural complexity (Fricke & Volkmer, 2007). Seminal contributions were made by Mann and Heywood, who studied the controlled nucleation and crystallization of CaCO 3 under Langmuir monolayers of stearic acid (Mann, et al, 1988), which should be considered as extremely important work, as it placed the use of Langmuir monolayer studies, a technique well established in the field of physical chemistry in past century, now in the context of biomineralization. Importantly, the work noted that partially compressed Langmuir monolayers were optimal in inducing crystal formation, which was related to the possibility that the stearate molecules would adopt a Ca-induced local ordering resulting in a configuration tailored for nucleation of these crystals.…”

“…For this, Langmuir monolayer usually can serve as an ideal model system for simulating and studying biomacromolecules and biomacromolecule-controlled mineralization at the air-water interface. Therefore, it has been widely used as the organic templates in the research of biomimetic mineralization to guide the growth of inorganic crystals with special structural features and to better understand the interface nature of organic-mineral interface and what occurs at the interface between organic molecules and inorganic materials (Mann, et al, 1988;Mann, et al, 1993;Heywood & Mann, 1994;Mann & Ozin, 1996;Mann, 2001;Zhang, et al, 2004;Amos, et al, 2007;Popescu, et al, 2007;Pichon, et al, 2008). There has been so much biomimetic mineralization research in the past several decades using many kinds of Langmuir monolayer template system, such as small organic molecules, polymers, cells of organisms and so on.…”

Functional and Selective Bacterial Interfaces Using Cross-Scaffold Gold Binding Peptides

“…79 Peptide selectivity is likely due to the recognition of a combination of chemical (hydrogen bonding, polarity, and charge effects) and structural (size and morphology) features. 80,81 Whaley et al 29 described a peptide that was specific not only to gallium arsenide over silicon, but bound the (100) crystal face over the (111)B. The specificity of another gold binding peptide, GBP1, was examine using a quartz-crystal microbalance and was found to preferentially absorb to gold over platinum and silica, and suggested that polar moieties and the physical conformation of the peptide itself may play a role in the binding preference to gold over platinum or silica.…”

Two‐Dimensional Hybrid Materials: Transferring Technology from Biology to Society

“…Already in the 1980s Addadi and Weiner proposed that nucleation of calcium carbonate was induced on a surface consisting of a sulfated carbohydrate matrix acting as a calcium sponge within which an aspartic acid rich template exposing an ordered array of carboxylate groups directed the orientation of the crystals. [11] Many follow-up studies investigated the hard-soft interactions during the templating process using model systems such as Langmuir monolayers [12] and self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). [13] These studies showed that, although epitaxial relations between template and mineral may play a role, they are not a strict requirement, [14] and moreover that the mutual adaptation of template and mineral make it difficult to predict the outcome of the nucleation process.…”