Morphological templating of metastable calcium carbonates by the amino acid leucine

Abstract

The in vitro precipitation of the metastable CaCO3 phases aragonite and vaterite in the presence of leucine is investigated. Under normal conditions, the production of CaCO3 via the hydrolysis of urea method favours the formation of regular needle-like aragonite crystals, with very minor quantities of vaterite and calcite. However in the presence of leucine, aragonite forms highly branched structures and the vaterite yield is increased, forming flower-like clusters composed of nano-thin sheets. Both the degree of aragonite branching and the occurrence, regularity of shape and number of vaterite "petals" increases with leucine concentration. The two phases exhibit different variations in their crystallographic parameters with increasing concentration, while the molecular structure appears unaffected. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd 2011.