Projects per year
Abstract
Amorphous inorganic solids are traditionally isotropic, thus, it is believed that they only grow in a non-preferential way without the assistance of regulators, leading to the morphologies of nanospheres or irregular aggregates of nanoparticles. However, in the presence of (ortho)phosphate (Pi) and pyrophosphate ions (PPi) which have synergistic roles in biomineralization, the highly elongated amorphous nanowires (denoted ACPPNs) form in a regulator-free aqueous solution (without templates, additives, organics, etc). Based on thorough characterization and tracking of the formation process (e.g., Cryo-TEM, spherical aberration correction high resolution TEM, solid state NMR, high energy resolution monochromated STEM-EELS), the microstructure and its preferential growth behavior are elucidated. In ACPPNs, amorphous calcium orthophosphate and amorphous calcium pyrophosphate are distributed at separated but close sites. The ACPPNs grow via either the preferential attachment of ∼2 nm nanoclusters in a 1-dimension way, or the transformation of bigger nanoparticles, indicating an inherent driving force-governed process. We propose that the anisotropy of ACPPNs microstructure, which is corroborated experimentally, causes their oriented growth. This study proves that, unlike the conventional view, amorphous minerals can form via oriented growth without external regulation, demonstrating a novel insight into the structures and growth behaviors of amorphous minerals.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 960-970 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | JOURNAL OF COLLOID AND INTERFACE SCIENCE |
Volume | 657 |
Early online date | 13 Dec 2023 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Mar 2024 |
Bibliographical note
© 2023 Elsevier Inc. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the University’s Research Publications and Open Access policy.Keywords
- Amorphous inorganic solids
- Nanowires
- Calcium phosphate
- Calcium pyrophosphate
- Oriented growth
Projects
- 1 Active
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SuperSTEM: National Research Facility for Advanced Electron Microscopy
Kepaptsoglou, D. (Co-investigator)
14/03/22 → 13/03/27
Project: Research project (funded) › Research