cm9b02421_si_001.pdf (1.63 MB)
Skin-Deep Surface Patterning of Calcite
journal contribution
posted on 2019-10-17, 11:37 authored by David C. Green, Yosuke Shida, Nobuyuki Honma, Mark A. Holden, Yi-Yeoun Kim, Alexander N. Kulak, Wataru Ogasawara, Fiona C. MeldrumThe influence of
soluble additives on the growth of calcite (CaCO3) is usually
rationalized based on changes in crystal morphologies,
where preferential association of the additives with either the acute
or obtuse steps on the crystal surface gives rise to specific growth
forms. In this work we investigate the influence of a highly acidic
organic additive with calcite, cp20k from the barnacle Megabalanus
rosa, and demonstrate that in addition to modifying the crystal
morphology, additives can be used to generate calcite crystals with
different surface architectures. These can potentially rise to interesting
optical effects that may be important in applications such as in coatings
and paints. These surface features form during dissolution/reprecipitation
at the crystal surface during the incubation of crystals in solution,
and confocal fluorescence microscopy confirmed they are limited to
the surface of the crystal only. The surface patterning can also be
tuned using alternative additives, mixtures of additives and by varying
the solution conditions. Notably, we also show that surface structures
can be used to determine the mode of interaction of additives with
the microscopic surface steps under conditions where only minor changes
in morphology have occurred. Introduction.