Li Hanying, Xin Huolin L, Muller David A, Estroff Lara A
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA.
Science. 2009 Nov 27;326(5957):1244-7. doi: 10.1126/science.1178583.
Single crystals are usually faceted solids with homogeneous chemical compositions. Biogenic and synthetic calcite single crystals, however, have been found to incorporate macromolecules, spurring investigations of how large molecules are distributed within the crystals without substantially disrupting the crystalline lattice. Here, electron tomography reveals how random, three-dimensional networks of agarose nanofibers are incorporated into single crystals of synthetic calcite by allowing both high- and low-energy fiber/crystal interface facets to satisfy network curvatures. These results suggest that physical entrapment of polymer aggregates is a viable mechanism by which macromolecules can become incorporated inside inorganic single crystals. As such, this work has implications for understanding the structure and formation of biominerals as well as toward the development of new high-surface area, single-crystal composite materials.
单晶通常是具有均匀化学成分的多面体固体。然而，已发现生物成因的方解石单晶和合成方解石单晶能结合大分子，这激发了人们对大分子如何在晶体中分布而又基本不破坏晶格的研究。在这里，电子断层扫描揭示了琼脂糖纳米纤维的随机三维网络是如何通过允许高能和低能纤维/晶体界面小平面满足网络曲率而被纳入合成方解石单晶中的。这些结果表明，聚合物聚集体的物理截留是大分子能够掺入无机单晶内部的一种可行机制。因此，这项工作对于理解生物矿物的结构和形成以及新型高表面积单晶复合材料的开发具有重要意义。
