Renewable chitin from marine sponge as a thermostable biological template for hydrothermal synthesis of hematite nanospheres using principles of extreme biomimetics

Abstract

range of uses. Here, chitin-based scaffolds isolated from the skeleton of marine demosponge Aplysina aerophoba were used as a template for the in vitro formation of iron oxide from a saturated iron(III) chloride solution, under hydrothermal conditions (pH~1.5, 90 °C). The resultant chitin-Fe 2 O 3 three dimensional composites, prepared for the first time via hydrothermal synthesis route, were thoroughly characterized using light, fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy; as well as with analytical methods like Raman spectroscopy, electron diffraction and HR-TEM. The results show that this versatile method allows for efficient chitin mineralization with respect to hematite. Additionally, we demonstrate that chitin nanofibers template the nucleation of uniform Fe 2 O 3 nanocrystals.

Color-specific porosity in double pigmented natural 3d-nanoarchitectures of blue crab shell

“…The intensity and full width at half maximum (FWHM) values of thev 1 (CO 3 2− ) stretching mode indicated the highest calcite crystallinity in red dactyls, followed by green dactyls, white, and blue palm shells. Significant broadening of the v 1 mode to the lower wavenumbers, paired with broadening of the v 4 and lattice modes indicates the co-existence of amorphous 37 CaCO 3 in blue and white shells, while broadening of v 1 to higher wavenumbers indicates small inclusions of Mg atoms in calcite crystalline lattice 36 . The area ratio r of the two Raman band components of calcite stretching mode in blue shell showed a value r = area (1085) /area (1075) of 2.82 ( Supplementary Fig.…”

Marine Spongin: Naturally Prefabricated 3D Scaffold-Based Biomaterial

“…For example, Ehrlich et al used an extreme biomimetic strategy to develop a zirconium oxide phase on the surface of chitin, which is thermostable up to 400 °C [ 91 ]. This approach has also been used to create novel multiphase composites, such as chitin/zirconia [ 90 ], β-chitin/ZnO [ 137 ], chitin/GeO 2 [ 138 ], chitin/hematite [ 139 , 140 ], chitin/(Ti,Zr)O 2 [ 141 ], chitin/silica [ 142 , 143 ] and chitin/POSS [ 144 ], for various applications. Recently, an extreme biomimetic route was also used for the first time for the development of pectin/GeO 2 composites [ 145 ].…”

Three-dimensional chitin rings from body segments of a pet diplopod species: Characterization and protein interaction studies

“…Especially, some recent studies reported by Ehrlich et al have provided new insights into the nature and function of chitin found in the organisms of phylum Porifera [15][16][17][18]. The authors isolated three dimensional chitin structures from sponges, and they had excellent results regarding applications of those chitin isolates [19][20][21][22].…”