Issue 1, 2004
From the journal:

Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry

An organic hydrogel as a matrix for the growth of calcite crystals†

Lara A. Estroff,a   Lia Addadi,b   Steve Weinerb  and  Andrew D. Hamilton*a  

* Corresponding authors

a Department of Chemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511
E-mail: andrew.hamilton@yale.edu
Fax: +1 203-432-3221
Tel: +1 203-432-5570

b Department of Structural Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel 76100

Abstract

The growth of calcite in an aqueous gel of 1 was studied and the appearance of the crystals was found to change over time. Crystals removed from the gel at progressively longer times showed severely affected surfaces resulting from dissolution. If crystals were removed from the gel after 3.5 hours, at which point there were no etch pits, and then placed in either buffer or pure water, etch pits, similar to those observed on crystals that are left in the gel, were observed. Control calcite crystals exposed to similar conditions (water or buffer) show no significant dissolution after equivalent times. A probable cause of the altered dissolution is the non-specific occlusion of gelator aggregates at sites of imperfection. The gel appears to provide a microenvironment in which the molecules that form the matrix also participate in the crystallization. This system allows the study of the unique properties of a gel for influencing the nucleation and growth of inorganic crystals, some of which may be important for better understanding biomineralization.

Graphical abstract: An organic hydrogel as a matrix for the growth of calcite crystals

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/B309731E
Article type
Paper
Submitted
13 Aug 2003
Accepted
12 Nov 2003
First published
28 Nov 2003

Org. Biomol. Chem., 2004,2, 137-141

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An organic hydrogel as a matrix for the growth of calcite crystals

L. A. Estroff, L. Addadi, S. Weiner and A. D. Hamilton, Org. Biomol. Chem., 2004, 2, 137 DOI: 10.1039/B309731E

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