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Title: Myriad Mapping of nanoscale minerals reveals calcium carbonate hemihydrate in forming nacre and coral biominerals

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
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Abstract Calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ) is abundant on Earth, is a major component of marine biominerals and thus of sedimentary and metamorphic rocks and it plays a major role in the global carbon cycle by storing atmospheric CO 2 into solid biominerals. Six crystalline polymorphs of CaCO 3 are known—3 anhydrous: calcite, aragonite, vaterite, and 3 hydrated: ikaite (CaCO 3 ·6H 2 O), monohydrocalcite (CaCO 3 ·1H 2 O, MHC), and calcium carbonate hemihydrate (CaCO 3 ·½H 2 O, CCHH). CCHH was recently discovered and characterized, but exclusively as a synthetic material, not as a naturally occurring mineral. Here, analyzing 200 million spectra with Myriad Mapping (MM) of nanoscale mineral phases, we find CCHH and MHC, along with amorphous precursors, on freshly deposited coral skeleton and nacre surfaces, but not on sea urchin spines. Thus, biomineralization pathways are more complex and diverse than previously understood, opening new questions on isotopes and climate. Crystalline precursors are more accessible than amorphous ones to other spectroscopies and diffraction, in natural and bio-inspired materials.

Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-07ER15899; FWP-FP00011135; AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
2315746
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Vol. 15 Journal Issue: 1; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English

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