Resilient Intracrystalline Occlusions: A Solid-State NMR View of Local Structure as It Tunes Bulk Lattice Properties.

ABSTRACT: In many marine organisms, biomineralization-the crystallization of calcium-based ionic lattices-demonstrates how regulated processes optimize for diverse functions, often via incorporation of agents from the precipitation medium. We study a model system consisting of l-aspartic acid (Asp) which when added to the precipitation solution of calcium carbonate crystallizes the thermodynamically disfavored polymorph vaterite. Though vaterite is at best only kinetically stable, that stability is tunable, as vaterite grown with Asp at high concentration is both thermally and temporally stable, while vaterite grown at 10-fold lower Asp concentration, yet 2-fold less in the crystal, spontaneously transforms to calcite. Solid-state NMR shows that Asp is sparsely occluded within vaterite and calcite.

SUBMITTER: Ben Shir I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7586327 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature