Theoretical investigation of mollusk shells: Energy landscape exploration of CaCo3 polymorphs and element substitution: A short review

Abstract

Due to the remarkable properties achieved under ambient conditions and with quite limited components, mollusk shells are very appealing natural bio-composites used as inspiration for new advanced materials. Calcium carbonate which is among the most widespread biominerals is used by mollusks as a building material that constitutes 95-99% of their shells. Within the investigation of calcium carbonate polymorphs present in the shells, diverse theoretical and experimental studies were performed, however, further research of these crystalline forms is required. There are very little researches on the energy landscapes of biogenic calcium carbonate which can provide us information about the free energies of already known as well as newly discovered plausible structures. To investigate the structural, mechanical, elastic, or vibrational properties and to predict new possible structures of biogenic calcium carbonate, different calculation methods could be employed. Some of these studies are presented and discussed in this paper.