Formation of hollow bone-like morphology of calcium carbonate on surfactant/polymer templates

Abstract

Novel hollow, bone-like structures of Precipitated Calcium Carbonate (PCC) are fabricated, for the first time, starting from naturally occurring dolomite. The hollow, bone-like structures are prepared by precipitating calcium carbonate on self-assembled poly(acrylic acid)/cetyltrimethylammonium chloride (PAA/CTAC) template. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopic (FE-SEM) studies reveal that the bone-like structure is composed of Amorphous Calcium Carbonate (ACC) nanoparticles in the center and calcite nanoparticles at the edges. Bone-like PCC particles are in particle length of 2–3μm and particle width of 1μm. The internal hollow structures of bone-like particles are observed from TEM images. As identified by FE-SEM images, the bone-like structure has been formed through the crystal growth of initially formed ACC nanoparticles. The ACC particles are stabilized in the center while the calcite crystals have been grown from the ACC toward the edges of the structure to form a bone-like morphology. We also propose a possible mechanism for the formation of hollow bone-like PCC in this study. The fabricated hollow, bone-like PCC has potential applications in the preparation of release systems such as drugs, cosmetics and pigments.