Crystallization of Calcite in Biomineral-Like Structures and Insight into Biomineralization

摘要

INTRODUCTION Among over 60 different biogenic minerals known by far, calcium carbonate is the most ubiquitous biogenic mineral (Lowenstam and Weiner, 1989). Compared with metastable aragonite, thermodynami-cally unstable vaterite and amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC), calcite is the most stable polymorph at ambient conditions. Calcite crystals have been found in skeletons of echinoderms, foraminifera, coccoliths, prisms of certain mollusk shells and spines of sea urchin (Baeuerlein, 2003; Weiner and Addadi, 1997;Albeck et al., 1993).