DOI: 10.1126/science.1164271. Stable Prenucleation Calcium Carbonate Clusters

Stable Prenucleation Calcium Carbonate Clusters

10.1126/science.1164271

Crossref journal-article

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Science (221)

Abstract

Calcium carbonate forms scales, geological deposits, biominerals, and ocean sediments. Huge amounts of carbon dioxide are retained as carbonate ions, and calcium ions represent a major contribution to water hardness. Despite its relevance, little is known about the precipitation mechanism of calcium carbonate, and specified complex crystal structures challenge the classical view on nucleation considering the formation of metastable ion clusters. We demonstrate that dissolved calcium carbonate in fact contains stable prenucleation ion clusters forming even in undersaturated solution. The cluster formation can be characterized by means of equilibrium thermodynamics, applying a multiple-binding model, which allows for structural preformation. Stable clusters are the relevant species in calcium carbonate nucleation. Such mechanisms may also be important for the crystallization of other minerals.

Bibliography

Gebauer, D., VoÌlkel, A., & CoÌlfen, H. (2008). Stable Prenucleation Calcium Carbonate Clusters. Science, 322(5909), 1819â1822.

Authors 3

Denis Gebauer (first)
Antje Völkel (additional)
Helmut Cölfen (additional)

References 28 Referenced 1,421

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Financial support by the German Science Foundation priority program 1117 “Principles of Biomineralization” and the Max Planck Society are gratefully acknowledged. We thank M. Antonietti (MPI) and P. Bowen (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne Switzerland) for valuable discussions on the manuscript A. Verch (MPI) for experimental assistance and O. Paris and I. Zenke (both MPI) for SAXS analysis. D.G. thanks T. Ketterer and J. Thomas of Deutsche Metrohm for technical assistance.

Dates

Type	When
Created	16 years, 8 months ago (Dec. 18, 2008, 5:48 p.m.)
Deposited	1 year, 7 months ago (Jan. 10, 2024, 4:29 a.m.)
Indexed	1 hour, 33 minutes ago (Aug. 21, 2025, 11:52 a.m.)
Issued	16 years, 8 months ago (Dec. 19, 2008)
Published	16 years, 8 months ago (Dec. 19, 2008)
Published Print	16 years, 8 months ago (Dec. 19, 2008)

Funders 0

None

BibTeX

@article{Gebauer_2008, title={Stable Prenucleation Calcium Carbonate Clusters}, volume={322}, ISSN={1095-9203}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1164271}, DOI={10.1126/science.1164271}, number={5909}, journal={Science}, publisher={American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)}, author={Gebauer, Denis and Völkel, Antje and Cölfen, Helmut}, year={2008}, month=dec, pages={1819–1822} }

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