ATP-stabilized amorphous calcium carbonate nanospheres and their application in protein adsorption

Calcium carbonate is a common substance found in rocks worldwide, and is the main biomineral formed in shells of marine organisms and snails, pearls and eggshells. Amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) is the least stable polymorph of calcium carbonate, which is so unstable under normal conditions that it is difficult to be prepared in vitro because it rapidly crystallizes to form one of the more stable polymorphs in aqueous solution. Herein, we report the successful synthesis of highly stable ACC nanospheres in vitro using adenosine 5'-triphosphate disodium salt (ATP) as a stabilizer. The effect of ATP on the stability of ACC nanospheres is investigated. Our experiments show that ATP plays an unique role in the stabilization of ACC nanospheres in aqueous solution. Moreover, the as-prepared ACC nanospheres are highly stable in phosphate buffered saline for a relatively long period of time (12 days) even under relatively high concentrations of calcium and phosphate ions. The cytotoxicity tests show that the as-prepared highly stable ACC nanospheres have excellent biocompatibility. The highly stable ACC nanospheres have high protein adsorption capacity, implying that they are promising for applications in biomedical fields such as drug delivery and protein adsorption.