engleski

Formation and morphological properties of aragonite biomineral structures at the nanoscale

This study describes complex structural and morphological properties of hierarchically organized biomineral aragonite structures of the pillow coral (Cladocora caespitosa), Noah’s ark (Arca noae), noble fan mussel (Pinna nobilis) and common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) and review the tangled mechanism of their formation at the nanoscale. The structures and morphologies of aragonite biominerals were examined using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), their thermal properties by thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) and differential thermal analysis (DTA). Soluble proteins from the organic matrix were investigated using gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE and 2-DE PAGE). The results obtained show that examined species form hierarchically organized biomineral structures through the oriented aggregation processes of the nanosized aragonite crystallites. Aggregated forms are still visible in the entirely designed biominerals, exhibiting well-defined and uniform nanosized building blocks associated with the organic components. These processes produce morphologically diverse aragonite structures in each species that is primarily governed by the character of the organic components, mainly soluble proteins. As a final remark, this study demonstrates how these aragonite producing organisms may take an advantage of a variety of proteins to manipulate the formation and morphology of biogenic aragonite at the nanoscale. Understanding these mechanisms may lead to new strategies for the synthesis of biomaterials with desirable properties and to improve insight into their role in the hard tissues formation of many mineralizing organisms [1-3]. References [1] I. Sondi, B. Salopek – Sondi, S. D. Škapin, S. Šegota, I. Jurina and B. Vukelić, J. Colloid Interface Sci. 354, 181 (2011) [2] I. Sondi, S.D. Škapin, I. Jurina and D. Slovenec. Geologia Croatica 64/1, 61 (2011) [3] I. Sondi and S. D. Škapin in “Biomimetics, Learning from Nature”, ed. Amitava Mukherjee (InTech, Viena), p 241 (2010). This work has been supported in part by Croatian Science Foundation under the project 2504.

biomineral; aggregation; aragonite; nanoscale

nije evidentirano