Nanostructured Surfaces Enhance Nucleation Rate of Calcium Carbonate
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Date
2024-11-21
Publication Type
Journal Article
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yes
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Abstract
Nucleation and growth of calcium carbonate on surfaces is of broad importance in nature and technology, being essential to the calcification of organisms, while negatively impacting energy conversion through crystallization fouling, also called scale formation. Previous work studied how confinements, surface energies, and functionalizations affect nucleation and polymorph formation, with surface-water interactions and ion mobility playing important roles. However, the influence of surface nanostructures with nanocurvature-through pit and bump morphologies-on scale formation is unknown, limiting the development of scalephobic surfaces. Here, it is shown that nanoengineered surfaces enhance the nucleation rate by orders of magnitude, despite expected inhibition through effects like induced lattice strain through surface nanocurvature. Interfacial and holographic microscopy is used to quantify crystallite growth and find that nanoengineered interfaces experience slower individual growth rates while collectively the surface has 18% more deposited mass. Reconstructions through nanoscale cross-section imaging of surfaces coupled with classical nucleation theory-utilizing local nanocurvature effects-show the collective enhancement of nano-pits.
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published
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Journal / series
Volume
20 (47)
Pages / Article No.
2402690
Publisher
Wiley-VCH
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Edition / version
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Date collected
Date created
Subject
biomineralization; calcium carbonate; crystallization fouling; nanoscale engineering; nucleation; scalephobicity; surface nanostructure
Organisational unit
02668 - Inst. f. Energie- und Verfahrenstechnik / Inst. Energy and Process Engineering
Notes
Funding
853257 - De-railing scaling: From fundamentals of crystallization fouling on nano-materials to rational design of scale-phobic surfaces (EC)
Related publications and datasets
Is supplemented by: https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000648538