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Ghosh S, Douglas JF. Phase separation in the presence of fractal aggregates. J Chem Phys 2024; 160:104903. [PMID: 38469910 DOI: 10.1063/5.0190196] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2023] [Accepted: 02/16/2024] [Indexed: 03/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Liquid-liquid phase separation in diverse manufacturing and biological contexts often occurs in the presence of aggregated particles or complex-shaped structures that do not actively participate in the phase separation process, but these "background" structures can serve to direct the macroscale phase separation morphology by their local symmetry-breaking presence. We perform Cahn-Hilliard phase-field simulations in two dimensions to investigate the morphological evolution, wetting, and domain growth phenomena during the phase separation of a binary mixture in contact with model fractal aggregates. Our simulations reveal that phase separation initially accelerates around the fractal due to the driving force of wetting, leading to the formation of the target composition patterns about the fractals, as previously observed for circular particles. After the formation of a wetting layer on the fractal, however, we observe a dramatic slowing-down in the kinetics of phase separation, and the characteristic domain size eventually "pins" to a finite value or approaches an asymptotic scaling regime as an ordinary phase if the phase separation loses memory of the aggregates when the scale of phase separation becomes much larger than the aggregate. Furthermore, we perform simulations to examine the effects of compositional interference between fractals with a view to elucidating interesting novel morphological features in the phase-separating mixture. Our findings should be helpful in understanding the qualitative aspects of the phase separation processes in mixtures containing particle aggregates relevant for coating, catalyst, adhesive, and electronic applications as well as in diverse biological contexts, where phase separation occurs in the presence of irregular heterogeneities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Supriyo Ghosh
- Metallurgical & Materials Engineering Department, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand 247667, India
| | - Jack F Douglas
- Materials Science & Engineering Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA
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Colon S, Paige A, Bolarinho R, Young H, Gerdon AE. Secondary Structure of DNA Aptamer Influences Biomimetic Mineralization of Calcium Carbonate. ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES 2023; 15:6274-6282. [PMID: 36715729 PMCID: PMC9924263 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.2c15626] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2022] [Accepted: 01/22/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Calcium materials, such as calcium carbonate, are produced in natural and industrial settings that range from oceanic to biomedical. An array of biological and biomimetic template molecules have been employed in controlling and understanding the mineralization reaction but have largely focused on small molecule additives or disordered polyelectrolytes. DNA aptamers are synthetic and programmable biomolecules with polyelectrolyte characteristics but with predictable and controllable secondary structure akin to native extracellular moieties. This work demonstrates for the first time the influence of DNA aptamers with known G-quadruplex structures on calcium carbonate mineralization. Aptamers demonstrate kinetic inhibition of mineral formation, sequence and pH-dependent uptake into the mineral, and morphological control of the primarily calcite material in controlled solution conditions. In reactions initiated from the complex matrix of ocean water, DNA aptamers demonstrated enhancement of mineralization kinetics and resulting amorphous material. This work provides new biomimetic tools to employ in controlled mineralization and demonstrates the influence that template secondary structure can have in material formation.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Rylie Bolarinho
- Department of Chemistry and
Physics, Emmanuel College, 400 The Fenway, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
| | - Hailey Young
- Department of Chemistry and
Physics, Emmanuel College, 400 The Fenway, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
| | - Aren E Gerdon
- Department of Chemistry and
Physics, Emmanuel College, 400 The Fenway, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, United States
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Schmidt CA, Stifler CA, Luffey EL, Fordyce BI, Ahmed A, Barreiro Pujol G, Breit CP, Davison SS, Klaus CN, Koehler IJ, LeCloux IM, Matute Diaz C, Nguyen CM, Quach V, Sengkhammee JS, Walch EJ, Xiong MM, Tambutté E, Tambutté S, Mass T, Gilbert PUPA. Faster Crystallization during Coral Skeleton Formation Correlates with Resilience to Ocean Acidification. J Am Chem Soc 2022; 144:1332-1341. [PMID: 35037457 PMCID: PMC8796227 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c11434] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Abstract
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The mature skeletons
of hard corals, termed stony or scleractinian
corals, are made of aragonite (CaCO3). During their formation,
particles attaching to the skeleton’s growing surface are calcium
carbonate, transiently amorphous. Here we show that amorphous particles
are observed frequently and reproducibly just outside the skeleton,
where a calicoblastic cell layer envelops and deposits the forming
skeleton. The observation of particles in these locations, therefore,
is consistent with nucleation and growth of particles in intracellular
vesicles. The observed extraskeletal particles range in size between
0.2 and 1.0 μm and contain more of the amorphous precursor phases
than the skeleton surface or bulk, where they gradually crystallize
to aragonite. This observation was repeated in three diverse genera
of corals, Acropora sp., Stylophora pistillata—differently sensitive to ocean acidification (OA)—and Turbinaria peltata, demonstrating that intracellular particles
are a major source of material during the additive manufacturing of
coral skeletons. Thus, particles are formed away from seawater, in
a presumed intracellular calcifying fluid (ICF) in closed vesicles
and not, as previously assumed, in the extracellular calcifying fluid
(ECF), which, unlike ICF, is partly open to seawater. After particle
attachment, the growing skeleton surface remains exposed to ECF, and,
remarkably, its crystallization rate varies significantly across genera.
The skeleton surface layers containing amorphous pixels vary in thickness
across genera: ∼2.1 μm in Acropora,
1.1 μm in Stylophora, and 0.9 μm in Turbinaria. Thus, the slow-crystallizing Acropora skeleton surface remains amorphous and soluble longer, including
overnight, when the pH in the ECF drops. Increased skeleton surface
solubility is consistent with Acropora’s vulnerability
to OA, whereas the Stylophora skeleton surface layer
crystallizes faster, consistent with Stylophora’s
resilience to OA. Turbinaria, whose response to OA
has not yet been tested, is expected to be even more resilient than Stylophora, based on the present data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Connor A Schmidt
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Cayla A Stifler
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Emily L Luffey
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Benjamin I Fordyce
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Asiya Ahmed
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | | | - Carolyn P Breit
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Sydney S Davison
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Connor N Klaus
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Isaac J Koehler
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Isabelle M LeCloux
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Celeo Matute Diaz
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Catherine M Nguyen
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Virginia Quach
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Jaden S Sengkhammee
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Evan J Walch
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Max M Xiong
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
| | - Eric Tambutté
- Department of Marine Biology, Centre Scientifique de Monaco, 98000 Monaco, Principality of Monaco
| | - Sylvie Tambutté
- Department of Marine Biology, Centre Scientifique de Monaco, 98000 Monaco, Principality of Monaco
| | - Tali Mass
- Marine Biology Department, University of Haifa, Mt. Carmel, Haifa 31905, Israel
| | - Pupa U P A Gilbert
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States.,Chemical Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.,Departments of Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering, and Geoscience, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, United States
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