Development of a Controlled Injection Method Using Support Templates for the Production of Chemobrionic Materials

Abstract

Chemobrionics is a research field about the well-known self-organized inorganic structures. Numerous research works have focused on controlling their growth pattern and characteristic features. In the present study, a controlled injection method is proposed to produce more regular self-assembled chemobrionics compared to the standard direct injection technique. This method involves the injection of a metal salt solution into an agarose support template filled with an anionic solution. The obtained structures were studied by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray microtomography, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, Fourier-transform IR spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis. Despite the complex mechanism and chemistry underlying the self-organization phenomena, the controlled injection method enabled the generation of regular standard chemobrionic structures with high experimental reproducibility. It provided the extraction of tubular structures from the reaction vessel without breakage, thus allowing comprehensive characterization. Furthermore, the morphological, chemical, and thermal features of these structures were highly correlated with the standard chemobrionics obtained in the direct injection method. The proposed controlled injection method holds great promise for understanding and controlling the properties of chemobrionics and related structures.

Comparative Evaluation of Chemical Garden Growth Techniques

“…The observed crystals on the internal surface predominantly indicated the presence of magnesium silicate and NaCl salt, which was consistent with the results from EDS analysis ( Figure S1b,d ) and previous reports. 4 , 18 , 19 In contrast, the primary component found on the external smooth surface of solids formed in seed and injection experiments was magnesium oxide, while the relative quantities of magnesium silicate and sodium silicate were lower on these surfaces compared to those observed on the internal surfaces ( Figure S1a,c ). In the membrane experiment, it was observed that the surface morphologies were clearly different for the two sides of the precipitate: rough on the solution side ( Figure 3 e) and smooth on the side adjacent to the cellulose membrane ( Figure 3 f).…”

Design of chemobrionic and biochemobrionic scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

“…CB and BS incorporated BCB scaffolds were produced with the controlled injection method 27 . The system consisted of a New Era-100 syringe pump (USA) and a capillary tube to feed solutions, and a polypropylene centrifuge tube containing a hollow agarose template, which was 3.0 cm in height and had an internal space with a 3.0 mm diameter.…”

Characteristic growth of chemical gardens from mixtures of two salts

“…These studies focused on various physicochemical factors [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] including oscillatory growth of hollow microtubes, 12 tube growth with a pinned bubble, 14 and spiral growth of the tube controlled by the application of magnetic force. 15 Recently, chemical gardens have received attention as biomimetic materials due to their ability to form a variety of self-assembled structures, [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] such as silica-rich biomimetic mineral 20 and self-assembled nanostructures. [21][22][23][24][25][26][27] These diverse approaches to chemical gardens and their self-organized structures in physics, chemistry, and biology, nucleated a new research area called "chemobrionics".…”

“…15 Recently, chemical gardens have received attention as biomimetic materials due to their ability to form a variety of self-assembled structures, [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] such as silica-rich biomimetic mineral 20 and self-assembled nanostructures. [21][22][23][24][25][26][27] These diverse approaches to chemical gardens and their self-organized structures in physics, chemistry, and biology, nucleated a new research area called "chemobrionics". 1,[21][22][23][24][25][26] In addition, the morphology and composition of the chemical gardens under the different conditions have been studied by various analytical methods and techniques.…”

“…[21][22][23][24][25][26][27] These diverse approaches to chemical gardens and their self-organized structures in physics, chemistry, and biology, nucleated a new research area called "chemobrionics". 1,[21][22][23][24][25][26] In addition, the morphology and composition of the chemical gardens under the different conditions have been studied by various analytical methods and techniques. [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] A few recent studies also investigated chemical gardens consisting of multiple chemical species.…”