Effects of PAA additive and temperature on morphology of calcium carbonate particles

Calcium carbonate particles with various shapes were prepared by the reaction of sodium carbonate with calcium chloride in the absence and presence of a polyacrylic acid (PAA) at 25°C and 80°C, respectively. The as-prepared products were characterized with scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The effects of pH, temperatures, aging time and concentration of PAA and CaCO₃ on the crystal form and morphologies of the as-prepared CaCO₃ were investigated. The results show that pH, temperatures, concentration of PAA and CaCO₃ are important parameters for the control of morphologies of CaCO₃. Various crystal morphologies of calcite, such as, plates, rhombohedras, rectangles, ellipsoids, cubes, etc. can be obtained depending on the experimental conditions. Especially, the monodispersed cubic calcite particles can be produced by PAA addition at 80°C. Moreover, higher temperature is beneficial to the formation of monodispersed cubic or rectangular calcite particles. This research may provide new insight into the control of morphologies of calcium carbonate and the biomimetic synthesis of novel inorganic materials.     

Formation of calcium carbonate films on chitosan substrates in the presence of polyacrylic acid

In this investigation, chitosan membranes with different surface average degrees of deacetylation (DA) are prepared and then are employed as the support matrix to culture calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). In the presence of high concentration of polyacrylic acid (PAA), the CaCO₃ films obtained on the surface of all chitosan films mainly consisted of vaterite, which suggests the presence of bulk PAA plays an overwhelming part in stabilizing the vaterite. As a comparison, the influences of active groups indicate that only in case of low concentration PAA the thin CaCO₃ films grown on chitosan with 8% DA mainly consisted of vaterite owing to the strong nucleation ability of -NH₂ group, whereas, for those grown on chitosan with 80% DA the CaCO₃ films mainly consisted of aragonite. A more complex scenario revealed that in the case of intermediate concentration of PAA the formed polymorphs behave as mixtures of vaterite and aragonite.     

Peanut-shaped aggregation of CaCO<Subscript>3</Subscript> crystallites in the presence of an amphiphilic derivative of carboxymethylchitosan

An amphiphilic derivative of carboxymethylchitosan (CMCS), (2-hydroxyl-3-butoxyl)propyl-CMCS (HBP-CMCS), was used as an organic additive in the precipitation process of calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). HBP-CMCS molecules can interact with calcium ions, the functional groups of which act as active sites for the nucleation and crystallization of CaCO₃. Simultaneously, HBP-CMCS molecule also functionalizes as a colloidal stabilizer to prohibit the sedimentation of the grown CaCO₃ crystals, depending upon the molar ratio of the initial Ca²⁺ ions to the repeat units of HBP-CMCS molecules. The combination investigations of scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy on the precipitated CaCO₃ crystals proved that concentrations of HBP-CMCS and Ca²⁺ exert great influence on the crystallization habit of CaCO₃, such as the nucleation, growth, morphology, crystal form, etc. The formation of the peanut-shaped CaCO₃ particles suggests the template effect of HBP-CMCS molecules on the aggregation behavior of CaCO₃ nanocrystals.     

Polyepoxysuccinic acid with hyper-branched structure as an environmentally friendly scale inhibitor and its scale inhibition mechanism

In order to improve the scale inhibition efficiency of existing polyepoxysuccinic acid (PESA) and to study the impact of their molecular structure on scale inhibition efficiency, a series of PESA with linear and hyper-branched structure have been designed and synthesized through co-polymerization reaction with glycidyl and epoxy succinate. The scale inhibition behavior of PESA with linear and hyper-branched structure against CaCO₃ and CaSO₄ scales was evaluated using static scale inhibition method, and their ability to retard deposition of CaCO₃ was also examined. The experimental results showed that, for CaCO₃ and CaSO₄, the PESA with hyper-branched structure provides a scale inhibiting efficiency as high as 95.9% and 94.3%, respectively, at an inhibitor concentration of 15?mg/L. In addition, the processes of crystal nucleation, growth and crystal morphology have been analyzed. The experimental results show that the PESA with hyper-branched structure not only prolongs the induction period of CaCO₃ crystal nucleation, but also reduces the number of crystal nuclei and changes the size and morphology of the CaCO₃ crystal. Moreover, the FTIR, SEM and XRD analyses showed that the PESA with hyper-branched structure can induce the irregularity of growing CaCO₃ crystal, destroy the formation of crystals and change the polymorphs of calcium scale crystal. This conclusion indicates that the prepared PESA with hyper-branched structure has great potential for applying in the treatment of industrial water.     

Effects of macromolecules on the crystallization of CaCO3 the Formation of Organic/Inorganic Composites

The effects of macromolecules as soluble additives and solid matrices have been examined for the crystallization of CaCO₃. A vaterite form grows on a glass substrate in the presence of poly(glutamic acid) (PGA) containing a carboxylic acid group as a soluble additive. In contrast, no crystal growth has been observed when poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) exists as an additive though it has the same functional group. The conformation or the backbone structure of the polymers may have an influence on the crystal polymorph of CaCO₃. Thin film states of CaCO₃ crystals have been obtained as organic/inorganic composites with chitosan that acts as a solid matrix in the presence of PAA or PGA as a soluble additive.     

珍珠质基底上CaCO3晶体的仿生生长研究

珍珠质是一种典型的有机，无机层状复合材料．其中95％以上是文石（CaCO3的一种晶型1小板片，填充在板片之间的薄层有机基质仅占1％-5％。这种精细的组织结构不仅使珍珠质具有绚丽的光泽。还赋予珍珠质超乎寻常的强度和韧性（为合成CaCO3晶体的3000多倍）。虽然在珍珠质中有机质的含量不足5％．然而正是这些有机质对珍珠质的结构、性能、晶体取向等起着至关重要的调控作用。     

Facile synthesis of calcium carbonate/polyacrylic acid hydrogels for pH-responsive delivery of cytarabine

Cytarabine (Cyt) encapsulated calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) nanospheres were facilely synthesized through a simple co-precipitation method, and the Cyt encapsulated CaCO₃ nanospheres (CaCO₃/Cyt) were modified by polyacrylic acid (PAA) hydrogels through in situ polymerization of acrylic acid (AA) monomer on the surface of the CaCO₃/Cyt. Successful preparation of the Cyt loaded CaCO₃/PAA hydrogels were confirmed by the characterization of SEM, TEM and FT-IR. Premature release of Cyt in acidic medium (pH = 1.2) could be effectively circumvented by the introduction of the PAA hydrogels. More importantly, pH-responsive delivery of Cyt from the as-prepared CaCO₃/PAA hydrogels could be achieved due to the pH-sensitivity of the PAA. Although the highest swelling ratio of PAA was obtained at pH 7.3 (27.7), the highest cumulative release of Cyt from the carrier was achieved at pH 5.3 (86.75%), which might be attributed to the high stability of CaCO₃ at pH 7.3. That is to say, the highest cumulative release of Cyt at pH 5.3 was a compromise by considering the relatively high swelling ratio of PAA and the relatively low stability of CaCO₃.     

Morphology and Kinetics of Growth of CaCO<Subscript>3</Subscript> Precipitates Formed in Saline Water at 30°C

The crystallization kinetics and morphology of CaCO₃ crystals precipitated from the high salinity oilfield water were studied. The crystallization kinetics measurements show that nucleation and nuclei growth obey the first order reaction kinetics. The induction period of precipitation is extended in the high salinity solutions. Morphological studies show that impurity ions remain mostly in the solution phase instead of filling the CaCO₃ crystal lattice. The morphology of CaCO₃ precipitates can be changed from a smooth surface (calcite) to rough spheres (vaterite), and spindle rod bundles, or spherical, ellipsoid, flowers, plates and other shapes (aragonite).     

Effects of Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose macromolecules used as organic template on the crystallization of CaCO<Subscript>3</Subscript>

Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC) was used as an organic template to synthesize calcium carbonate. Crystals were synthesized in HPMC solution and HPMC hydrogel, respectively. For the mineralization system of HPMC solution, the effects of adding HPMC and rotating the reaction system on the crystal polymorph and morphology of CaCO₃ were investigated by X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results showed that the presence of HPMC induced the formation of aragonite. And its content became higher when the concentration of solution increased or when rotating the system with the presence of HPMC. Moreover, it can be seen from SEM that bundle-like CaCO₃ appeared and became more with the increase of concentration. The structure and shape of the crystal had close relationship with the condition of mineralization. On the other hand, for the first time, CaCO₃ was synthesized in HPMC gel, SEM results indicated that a special structure, a long bar with some slight slots at intervals on the surface, of the crystals which may be caused by the network structure of the gel was found. Thermogravimetry (TG) results showed that CaCO₃ crystal products contained some HPMC. Further research on how the gel network modulates the growth of crystals is left to be done in the future.     

Influence of polyaspartic acid and phosphophoryn on octacalcium phosphate growth kinetics

Polyaspartic acid (PAA) and phosphophoryn (PPn) have been suggested to adsorb specifically on the (100) and (010) faces, respectively, of octacalcium phosphate (Ca₄H(PO₄)₃ · 2.5H₂O, OCP). In this study, the extent of adsorption and influence of these molecules on OCP crystal growth has been investigated. For kinetic studies, protein effects on crystal growth were examined in solutions sustained at a constant level of supersaturation at pH 6.00 and ionic strength of 0.08 mol l⁻¹. The maximum adsorbed mol surface concentration for PPn was 100-fold less than that for PAA. Inhibitory effects interpreted in terms of mol surface coverage showed PPn to retard OCP growth more effectively than PAA. However, when considering percentage of crystal face covered by protein, PAA and PPn showed similar maximum adsorption concentrations onto the (100) and (010) crystal faces, respectively. PAA inhibited OCP growth by 20% when only 1% of the (100) face (1% total crystal area) was covered. PPn had to reach over 200% (010) face coverage (or 28% total crystal area) before a similar level of crystal growth inhibition was obtained. This difference in inhibitory effect may be the result of a more effective β-strand conformation of the shorter PAA molecule or may indicate that growth at the (100) face is rate controlling and, therefore, less than 1% coverage of this face is needed before a significant decrease in rate is observed.     

Membrane distillation operated at high seawater concentration factors: Role of the membrane on CaCO3 scaling in presence of humic acid

This study aims at investigating the kinetics of calcium carbonate precipitation (scaling), that occurs in the form of vaterite, when treating seawater by direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) operated at high concentration factors (from 4 to 6). Induction time measurements carried out by dynamic light scattering (DLS) allowed to identify the shifting between homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation mechanisms as a function of supersaturation. CaCO₃ interfacial energy, evaluated for concentrated seawater solutions as 45 mJ/m², increased by 7% as a consequence of the inhibition effect of humic acid, and it was reduced to 32 mJ/m² in correspondence of heterogeneous nucleation occurring on microporous polypropylene membranes. Gibbs free energy barrier to the formation of critical nuclei was predicted with good accuracy as a function of physico-chemical properties of the membrane (porosity: 0.70, contact angle: 115 ± 2°).     

活性聚苯乙烯膜诱导碳酸钙异相成核结晶

0引言生物矿物材料(如骨、牙齿、贝壳等)的优异性能[1]使得无机材料的仿生合成(又称有机模板合成)成为近年来研究的热点之一[2]。该合成技术的优点是,通过有机物分子与无机离子的相互作用,能够在温和的条件下合成出具有多级结构、特殊形貌和优异性能的有机/无机复合材料。CaCO3     

Design and synthesis of optically transparent calcium‐incorporated polymer complexes

Transparent thin films of calcium‐ion‐incorporated polymer composites were synthesized with calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) and polymers such as poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), and methylcellulose. The homogeneous distribution of Ca²⁺ in the composite films was observed because of the high concentration of COO^? groups along the PAA backbone for the complexation of Ca²⁺ ions. The optical transparency of the composites depends on the weight percentages of the three polymers and the molar concentration of CaCO₃ in the composites. Maximum transparency was obtained for a composite film with a PAA/CaCO₃ ratio of 9:1. The results indicated that methylcellulose improved the film‐forming capabilities and that PEG improved the transparency of the composites. All polymer complexes were characterized with X‐ray diffraction, fourier transfer infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, energy‐dispersive X‐ray spectroscopy, dynamic mechanical analysis, and optical transparency measurements. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 4459–4465, 2004     

Controlled synthesis of calcium carbonate in a mixed aqueous solution of PSMA and CTAB

A mixed system of poly (styrene-alt-maleic acid) (PSMA) and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) was used as a very effective crystal growth modifier to direct the controlled synthesis of CaCO₃ crystals with various morphologies and polymorphs. The as-prepared products were characterized with scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. It was found that the concentrations and relative ratios of PSMA and CTAB in the mixed aqueous solution were turned out to be important parameters for the morphology and polymorph of CaCO₃ crystals. Various morphologies of CaCO₃ crystals, such as hollow microsphere, peanut and so on, were produced depending on the concentrations and relative ratios of PSMA and CTAB. Moreover, the formation mechanisms of CaCO₃ crystals with different morphologies were discussed.     

Rosette‐Shaped Calcite Structures at Surfaces: Mechanistic Implications for CaCO3 Crystallization

Biomineralization is believed to be achieved by the intimate cooperation of soluble macromolecules and an insoluble matrix at the specific inorganic–organic interface. It has been reported that positively charged matrices play an important role in controlling the structure of CaCO₃ at surfaces, although detailed mechanisms remain unclear. In this work, we studied the transformation from amorphous CaCO₃ to calcite crystals on surfaces by using thin films of poly(2‐(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate) (PDMAEMA) and its quaternized form. The positively charged PDMAEMA film was found to possess unique properties for CaCO₃ crystallization: individually separated, single calcite crystals were formed on the PDMAEMA film in the absence of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), while circularly fused calcite crystals were formed in the presence of PAA. The circularly fused (rosette‐shaped) calcite crystals could be changed from a completely packed rosette to a ring‐shaped, hollow structure by tuning the crystallization conditions. A number of factors, such as reaction time, amount of (NH₄)₂CO₃, concentration of PAA, and charge of matrix‐films, were varied systematically, and we now propose a mechanism based on these observations.     

Kinetics of the decomposition of calcium carbonate in the presence of Bi2O3

Former studies concerning the formation of the compounds in the pseudobinary systems of Bi₂O₃-MO type (M =Ca, Sr, Ca+Sr) have shown that the reaction which occurs with the highest rate is that between Bi₂O₃ and CaO. In the present work CaCO₃ was used as CaO source. We carried out an investigation of the thermal decomposition of CaCO₃ in the presence of Bi₂O₃ in comparison with the decomposition of pure CaCO₃.The presence of Bi₂O₃ exerts a complex influence on the CaCO₃ decomposition acting on the nucleation as well as on the diffusion of CO₂. The decomposition of the samples with low Bi₂O₃ content follows the mechanism of a contracting sphere. A change from surface nucleation to bulk nucleation is recorded for higher amounts of Bi₂O₃.     

Na5P3O10-Ca(OH)2-CO2-H2O体系纳米CaCO3的成核与生长

通过化学分析、SEM显微分析技术,结合Rosin-Ramiler概率统计理论,从介观层次研究Na5P3O10-Ca(OH)2-CO2-H2O体系纳米CaCO3的合成反应及其成核和生长过程。结果表明,Na5P3O10对Ca(OH)2的碳化反应具有抑制作用。随着[Na5P3O10]的增加,体系中CaCO3的成核速率B^0逐渐增大。在[Na5P3O10]＝0ppm时,CaCO3结晶的生长由长程扩散和凝聚生长控制;[Na5P3O10]=380.4,760.9ppm时,前期受短程扩散和界面反应控制、后期受长程扩散控制。Na5P3O10的存在,抑制了纳米CaCO3的晶体生长。     

Enzyme-polyelectrolyte complex: Salt effects on the reaction of urease with polyallylamine

The effects of inorganic mono- and divalent salts of different types on how the cation polyelectrolyte polyallylamine hydrochloride (PAA) binds with the oligomer enzyme urease were studied. It was shown that in solutions of the monovalent salts NaCl, KCl, and NH₄Cl, polyelectrolyte-protein complexes formed by electrostatic interactions, which decreased monotonically as the salt concentrations increased according to the classic law of statistical physics, correlating the Debye radius with the ionic strength of the solution. In solutions of the divalent salts Na₂SO₄ and (NH₄)2_SO₄, the efficiency of the formation of the polyelectrolyte-protein complexes changed abruptly (the enzyme was drastically activated) at low salt concentrations (∼0.6–0.8 mM), which was not consistent with the classic theory of charge interactions in solutions with different ionic strengths. Turbidimetric titration at different salt concentrations in the given range revealed a high aggregative ability for sulfates and low ability for chlorides. It was concluded that the anomalies in the concentration dependence of the enzyme activity and aggregative ability were related to the formation of stable bonds PAA to the divalent SO₄²⁻ anion, which increased drastically when the ratio of anion concentration to the number of positively charged PAA monomers in solution reached 1: 2.     

Alginate hydrogel-mediated crystallization of calcium carbonate

We documented a specific method for combining calcium ions and alginate molecules slowly and continuously in the mineralization system for the purpose of understanding the mediating function of alginate on the crystallization of calcium carbonate. The alginate was involved in the nucleation and the growth process of CaCO₃. The crystal size, morphology and roughness of crystal surface were significantly influenced by the type of the alginate, which could be accounted for by the length of the G blocks in alginate. A combination of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis showed that there were the chemical interactions between the alginate and the mineral phase. This strategic approach revealed the biologically controlled CaCO₃ mineralization within calcium alginate hydrogels via the selective nucleation and the confined crystallization of CaCO₃. The results presented here could contribute to the understanding of the mineralization process in hydrogel systems.     

Poly(l-lactic acid) nonwoven fabric prepared by carbon dioxide laser-thinning method

Poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA) nonwoven fabric was obtained by using a carbon dioxide laser-thinning method. The obtained PLLA nonwoven fabric was made of endless microfibers with a uniform diameter without droplets. The fiber diameter can be varied by controlling an airflow rate supplied to the air jet, a supplying speed of an original fiber into a laser-irradiating point, and laser intensity. When the microfiber prepared by irradiating the laser operated at a laser intensity of 66 W cm⁻² to the original fiber supplied at S_s = 0.1 m min⁻¹ was dragged at an airflow rate of 30 L min⁻¹, the thinnest microfiber with an average diameter of 3.4 μm was obtained. The obtained microfiber had a degree of crystallinity of 45%, and the degree of crystal orientation of 84%. The existence of highly oriented crystallites suggests that a flow-induced crystallization occurred during the laser-thinning.