Bio-inspired synthesis of flavonoids incorporated CaCO3: Influence on the phase, morphology and mechanical strength of the composites

Abstract

Biominerals are composite materials that exhibit remarkable mechanical strength and properties and the organic molecules associated with the inorganic crystalline phase stand out as one of the most important reasons for this phenomenon. In this work, with the help of in vitro synthesized biominerals based on the flavonoids quercetin and hesperidin, we tried to elucidate the influence of these organic molecules on the resulting CaCO3 composites in terms of the phase and morphology. Also, for the very first time, the mechanical properties of CaCO3 composites based on flavonoids are studied. We demonstrated how by tuning the concentration of the incorporated organic phase, constituted by the flavonoid molecules, the toughness of the composite could be varied. The interaction between the organic and inorganic phases and their influence on the mechanical properties of the composite for both calcite and metastable vaterite was described. The mechanical strength of the composites was evaluated post their doping into gelatin films. The maximum tensile stress attained by the CaCO3 incorporated with quercetin and hesperidin was 2728 kPa and 3152 kPa, respectively, in contrast to the low value of 1140 kPa, which was observed for bare CaCO3.