Study of growth of calcium carbonate crystals on chitosan film

Biomimetic heterogeneous nucleation and growth of calcium carbonate crystals on the chitosan film as the template took place in supersaturated calcium bicarbonate solution. The specimen were characterized by optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, attenuated total reflectance infrared spectroscopy. The obtained crystals proved to be calcite in sheets composed of fine crystal particles. Lab results indicated that proper additives (poly acrylic acid with MW ≈ 2000 within some concentration range) together with proper temperature, etc., which are capable of suppressing homogeneous nucleation of the calcium carbonate, are in favor of heterogeneous nucleation and growth of calcium carbonate crystals.