title: Self-assembly of amorphous calcium carbonate microlens arrays.
abstract: Biological materials are often based on simple constituents and grown by the principle of self-assembly under ambient conditions. In particular, biomineralization approaches exploit efficient pathways of inorganic material synthesis. There is still a large gap between the complexity of natural systems and the practical utilization of bioinspired formation mechanisms. Here we describe a simple self-assembly route leading to a CaCO(3) microlens array, somewhat reminiscent of the brittlestars' microlenses, with uniform size and focal length, by using a minimum number of components and equipment at ambient conditions. The formation mechanism of the amorphous CaCO(3) microlens arrays was elucidated by confocal Raman spectroscopic imaging to be a two-step growth process mediated by the organic surfactant. CaCO(3) microlens arrays are easy to fabricate, biocompatible and functional in amorphous or more stable crystalline forms. This shows that advanced optical materials can be generated by a simple mineral precipitation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomaterials, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam 14424, Germany.
authors.forename: Kyubock
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wagermaier
authors.forename: Admir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Masic
authors.forename: Krishna P
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Kommareddy
authors.forename: Mathieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bennet
authors.forename: Inderchand
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Manjubala
authors.forename: Seung-Woo
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Seung B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cölfen
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fratzl
mesh_terms: D000199:Actins; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D002118:Calcium; D002119:Calcium Carbonate / Q000737:chemistry*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D007909:Lenses; D008903:Minerals / Q000737:chemistry*; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman
chemical_list: D000199:Actins; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D008903:Minerals; D002119:Calcium Carbonate; D002118:Calcium