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Title: Spherulitic Growth of Coral Skeletons and Synthetic Aragonite: Nature’s Three-Dimensional Printing

Journal Article · · ACS Nano

Coral skeletons were long assumed to have a spherulitic structure, that is, a radial distribution of acicular aragonite (CaCO3) crystals with their c-axes radiating from series of points, termed centers of calcification (CoCs). This assumption was based on morphology alone, not on crystallography. In this paper, we measure the orientation of crystals and nanocrystals and confirm that corals grow their skeletons in bundles of aragonite crystals, with their c-axes and long axes oriented radially and at an angle from the CoCs, thus precisely as expected for feather-like or “plumose” spherulites. Furthermore, we find that in both synthetic and coral aragonite spherulites at the nanoscale adjacent crystals have similar but not identical orientations, thus demonstrating by direct observation that even at nanoscale the mechanism of spherulite formation is non-crystallographic branching (NCB), as predicted by theory. Finally, synthetic aragonite spherulites and coral skeletons have similar angle spreads, and angular distances of adjacent crystals, further confirming that coral skeletons are spherulites. This is important because aragonite grows anisotropically, 10 times faster along the c-axis than along the a-axis direction, and spherulites fill space with crystals growing almost exclusively along the c-axis, thus they can fill space faster than any other aragonite growth geometry, and create isotropic materials from anisotropic crystals. Greater space filling rate and isotropic mechanical behavior are key to the skeleton’s supporting function and therefore to its evolutionary success. Finally, in this sense, spherulitic growth is Nature’s 3D printing.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22); National Science Foundation (NSF) (United States); Israel Science Foundation; United States–Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; FG02-07ER15899
OSTI ID:
1379910
Journal Information:
ACS Nano, Journal Name: ACS Nano Journal Issue: 7 Vol. 11; ISSN 1936-0851
Publisher:
American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (8)

Structure and Function of Stony Coral Intraskeletal Polysaccharides journal March 2018
Protein disorder–order interplay to guide the growth of hierarchical mineralized structures journal June 2018
Impact of ocean acidification on crystallographic vital effect of the coral skeleton journal July 2019
A rare case of an evolutionary late and ephemeral biomineralization: tunicates with composite calcareous skeletons journal January 2020
Protein disorder–order interplay to guide the growth of hierarchical mineralized structures journal June 2018
Precipitation of silver particles with controlled morphologies from aqueous solutions journal January 2020
Amorphous calcium carbonate particles form coral skeletons journal August 2017
The first tunicate with a calcareous exoskeleton (Upper Triassic, northern Italy) journal March 2018

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