Acid polysaccharide-induced amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) films: colloidal nanoparticle self-organization process

Amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) plays important roles in biomineralization, and its synthesis in vitro has been of keen interest in the field of biomimetic materials. In this report, we describe the synthesis of ACC films using a novel acid polysaccharide, maleic chitosan, as an additive. We prepared the films by directly depositing them onto TEM grids and examined them using polarized optical microscopy (POM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) combined with selected area electron diffraction (SAED). This enabled us to examine their formation and mesostructure without introducing artifacts. We observed that, in the presence of maleic chitosan, the ACC films are formed through a particle buildup process, with aggregation and coalescence occurring simultaneously. Nanoparticles with a size of less than 10 nm appear to be the basic units responsible for such self-organization. We suggest that the acid polysaccharide plays an important role in forming and stabilizing these nanoparticles, and we propose a colloidal nanoparticle self-organization model to explain the formation of the ACC films.