title: Anions bonded on the supramolecular hydrogel surface as the growth center of biominerals.
abstract: In this work, a supramolecular hydrogel formed from N,N',N''-tris(3-pyridyl)-trimesic amide was reported to serve as the matrix for the growth of biominerals. The organic hydrogel scaffold contains nitrogen heterocyclic ring and amide groups that can bind anions of the mineral (specially here, carbonate ions and phosphate ions) through hydrogen bonding interactions and act as the biomineralization active sites for growing biominerals. Calcium carbonate nucleated on the site of the hydrogel fiber where carbonate ions bonded and left obvious hydrogel fiber prints on the obtained product. Calcium phosphate grew into curved platelike nanostructures along the hydrogel fibrous network. XRD pattern and FT-IR spectra confirmed the formation of minerals on the hydrogel. The results indicate that the hydrogen bonding interaction can provide strong enough binding force for the growth of the minerals on organic scaffolds. Our finding extends the organic scaffolds into biodegradable small molecule hydrogels and also extends the growth centers of the minerals from conventional carboxylate groups binding Ca(2+) to amide and pyridyl groups binding PO(4)(3-).
authors.affiliation: National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Naien
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Gui
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D000577:Amides / Q000737:chemistry; D000838:Anions / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D002119:Calcium Carbonate / Q000737:chemistry; D002130:Calcium Phosphates / Q000737:chemistry; D020136:Hydrogel, Polyethylene Glycol Dimethacrylate / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D006860:Hydrogen Bonding; D008903:Minerals / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
chemical_list: D000577:Amides; D000838:Anions; D002130:Calcium Phosphates; D008903:Minerals; D020136:Hydrogel, Polyethylene Glycol Dimethacrylate; C020243:calcium phosphate; D002119:Calcium Carbonate