Biomineralization design strategies and mechanisms of mineral formation: Operating at the edge of instability

Abstract

The biological approach to forming crystals is proving to be most surprising. Three strategies evolved by organisms to build their mineralized materials will be discussed. These are: 1) Building mineralized structures with stable amorphous phases; 2) building mineralized structures with single crystals; 3) building mineralized structures with polycrystalline organized arrays. Interestingly, all appear to involve at some stage the use of an amorphous mineral phase. © 2008 Springer Netherlands.