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Updated: May 12, 2026

Calcium Carbonate Formation in the Presence of Biopolymeric Additives
Published on: May 14, 2019
Amphiphilic polypeptides as a bifunctional template in the mineralization of calcium carbonate at the air/water
Heng Cao1, Guoqiang Lin, Jinrong Yao
1State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, Department of Macromolecular Science and Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, P.R. China.
Abstract:
A well-defined amphiphilic polypeptide, poly(glutamic acid)22 -block-poly(alanine)8 (PGlu22 -b-PAla8 ), which plays the roles of both soluble (functional) additive and insoluble (structural) matrix, is employed to mediate the mineralization of CaCO3 at the air/water interface. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy, for example, show that the polymorph of CaCO3 particles obtained is calcite. The observations from SEM and TEM suggest that PGlu22 -b-PAla8 initiates the amorphous precursor phase and heterogeneous nucleation of CaCO3 at the air/water interface, while temporarily stabilizes the gelatinous precursors as a process-directing agent; nevertheless, the initial concentration of Ca(2+) controls the procedure of crystallization and the final morphology of CaCO3 particles. Such "bifunctional" amphiphilic-polypeptide-regulated mineralization at the air/water interface may be applied to the synthesis of many kinds of symmetrical inorganic/organic hybrids.
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