Gypsum Gardens: Self-Assembled Tubular Structures of Calcium Sulfate with Relevance for the Detection of Extraterrestrial Life.

ABSTRACT: Form is a common and intuitive criterion to distinguish between the realm of living species and the inanimate nature. However, there are in fact no strict boundaries in terms of morphology, as exemplified by so-called chemical gardens, which form by self-assembly in purely inorganic systems and yet closely mimic the appearance of trees and other plants. While such structures have been reported for a broad range of compositions-most notably silicates of various types of metal cations as well as prominent (bio)minerals like calcium carbonate or phosphate-one important material has been missing in the comprehensive list of these chemobrionic systems: calcium sulfate. In the present work, we succeeded in preparing well-developed CaSO₄-based chemical gardens by addition of a concentr

SUBMITTER: Reigl S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12643337 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature