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Updated: Aug 27, 2025

Calcium Carbonate Formation in the Presence of Biopolymeric Additives
Published on: May 14, 2019
Calcite Kinks Grow via a Multistep Mechanism
Alexander Broad1, Robert Darkins1, Dorothy M Duffy1
1London Centre for Nanotechnology, University College London, 17-19 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AH, U.K.
Abstract:
The classical model of crystal growth assumes that kinks grow via a sequence of independent adsorption events where each solute transitions from the solution directly to the crystal lattice site. Here, we challenge this view by showing that some calcite kinks grow via a multistep mechanism where the solute adsorbs to an intermediate site and only transitions to the lattice site upon the adsorption of a second solute. We compute the free energy curves for Ca and CO3 ions adsorbing to a large selection of kink types, and we identify kinks terminated both by Ca ions and by CO3 ions that grow in this multistep way.
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