Luminescence reveals variations in local structural order of calcium carbonate polymorphs formed by different mechanisms.

ABSTRACT: In nature, calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) in the form of calcite and aragonite nucleates through different pathways including geogenic and biogenic processes. It may also occur as pyrogenic lime plaster and laboratory-precipitated crystals. All of these formation processes are conducive to different degrees of local structural order in CaCO₃ crystals, with the pyrogenic and precipitated forms being the least ordered. These variations affect the manner in which crystals interact with electromagnetic radiation, and thus formation processes may be tracked using methods such as X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy. Here we show that defects in the crystal structure of CaCO₃ may be detected by looking at the luminescence of crystals. Using cathodoluminescence

SUBMITTER: Toffolo MB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6838102 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature