Interfacial reactions drive all elemental cycling on Earth and play pivotal roles in human
activities such as agriculture, water purification, energy production and storage …

BACKGROUND Numerous lines of evidence challenge the traditional interpretations of how
crystals nucleate and grow in synthetic and natural systems. In contrast to the monomer-by …

Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) biomineralizing organisms have played major roles in the
history of life and the global carbon cycle during the past 541 Ma. Both marine diversification …

Animals precisely control the morphology and assembly of guanine crystals to produce
diverse optical phenomena in coloration and vision. However, little is known about how …

Biomineralization is a widespread strategy for augmenting robustness, and material
strength, and for coping with high concentrations of toxic minerals. Prominent examples for …

Nacre, or mother-of-pearl, the iridescent inner layer of many mollusk shells, is a biomineral
lamellar composite of aragonite (CaCO3) and organic sheets. Biomineralization frequently …

Remarkable progress has been made to date in the discovery of material binding peptides
and their utilization in nanotechnology, which has brought new challenges and …

In nature, mollusk shells have a role in protecting the soft body of the mollusk from predators
and from the external environment, and the shells consist mainly of calcium carbonate and …

Biominerals are organic–mineral composites formed by living organisms. They are the
hardest and toughest tissues in those organisms, are often polycrystalline, and their …

Molluscan nacre is a fascinating biomineral consisting of a highly organized calcium
carbonate composite that provides unique fracture toughness and an iridescent color …