Structure of an amorphous calcium carbonate phase involved in the formation of Pinctada margaritifera shells.

ABSTRACT: Some mollusc shells are formed from an amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) compound, which further transforms into a crystalline material. The transformation mechanism is not fully understood but is however crucial to develop bioinspired synthetic biomineralization strategies or accurate marine biomineral proxies for geoscience. The difficulty arises from the simultaneous presence of crystalline and amorphous compounds in the shell, which complicates the selective experimental characterization of the amorphous fraction. Here, we use nanobeam X-ray total scattering together with an approach to separate crystalline and amorphous scattering contributions to obtain the spatially resolved atomic pair distribution function (PDF). We resolve three distinct amorphous calcium carbonate compounds, pre

SUBMITTER: Grunewald TA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9659418 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature