title: Direct fabrication of large micropatterned single crystals.
abstract: Micropatterning of single crystals for technological applications is a complex, multistep process. Nature provides alternative fabrication strategies, when crystals with exquisite micro-ornamentation directly develop within preorganized frameworks. We report a bio-inspired approach to growing large micropatterned single crystals. Micropatterned templates organically modified to induce the formation of metastable amorphous calcium carbonate were imprinted with calcite nucleation sites. The template-directed deposition and crystallization of the amorphous phase resulted in the fabrication of millimeter-sized single calcite crystals with sub-10-micron patterns and controlled crystallographic orientation. We suggest that in addition to regulating the shape, micropatterned frameworks act as sites for stress and impurity release during the amorphous-to-crystalline transition. The proposed mechanisms may have direct biological relevance and broad implications in materials synthesis.
authors.affiliation: Bell Laboratories/Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ 07974, USA.
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Aizenberg
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Muller
authors.forename: John L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Grazul
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Hamann
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002119:Calcium Carbonate / Q000737:chemistry*; D003460:Crystallization; D003461:Crystallography; D004447:Echinodermata / Q000737:chemistry; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D009930:Organic Chemicals; D002119:Calcium Carbonate