Discovery of new crystallization pathways in forming biominerals

发现形成生物矿物的新结晶途径

• 批准号: 2220274
• 负责人: Pupa Gilbert
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-07-01 至 2025-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2220274&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Discovery; new; crystallization; pathways; forming

Non-technical description Perfect crystals are formed when atoms order themselves in a regular geometry. This crystallization happens all the time in nature, resulting in gemstones, minerals, and rocks, but it is also relevant to and widespread in industry, for example to make semiconductor crystals for electronics, or to produce crystalline chemicals, pharmaceuticals, or food products. Understanding crystallization, therefore, promotes the progress of science and benefits society by improving fundamental knowledge and applied materials production. The problem, however, is that crystallization in all these natural and synthetic systems happens too fast, at high temperature, and at high pressure, making it difficult or impossible to observe crystallization as it happens. Researchers have a better chance to understand crystallization by observing it in biominerals, such as coral skeletons and seashells, where crystals grow at room temperature, ambient pressure, and very, very slowly, taking a day or so to crystallize. This research will involve talented undergraduate students who are members of underrepresented minorities in science and academia, and make them publish peer-reviewed journal articles, as previously done by these researchers. Technical descriptionObserving crystallization as it happens reveals the presence or absence of transient precursor phases, which can be crystalline or amorphous minerals. Preliminary, unpublished, unconfirmed data suggest that there are two kinds of transient precursors to biomineral formation: crystalline and amorphous. Transient crystalline phases have only been observed once before in only one biomineral, planktonic foraminifera, whereas transient amorphous phases have been observed extensively and repeatedly sea urchin spicules and spines, in mollusk shells, and in coral skeletons. The principal investigator and her group will strive explore the existence of transient crystalline precursors in many different biominerals, by analyzing data they already have and new data, to be acquired on new, unexplored biominerals: brachiopods and benthic foraminifera. They will develop software to build the energy landscapes that determine crystallization rates for all transient and stable phases, then use this software to analyze data new and old. They will develop machine learning and principal component analysis to find new, unknown mineral phases in new and old data. Even if they discover that transient crystalline phases do not exist in most biominerals, the new energy landscapes, the new biominerals and their formation mechanisms, and the potential new phases identified by machine learning in new and old data will make this research produce multiple interesting discoveries, while employing and training talented underrepresented undergraduate students.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

非技术描述 当原子以规则的几何形状排列时，就会形成完美的晶体。这种结晶在自然界中一直在发生，产生了宝石、矿物和岩石，但它也与工业相关并广泛存在，例如制造电子产品的半导体晶体，或生产结晶化学品、药品或食品。因此，了解结晶可以通过提高基础知识和应用材料生产来促进科学进步并造福社会。然而，问题在于所有这些天然和合成系统中的结晶在高温和高压下发生得太快，使得很难或不可能观察到结晶的发生。研究人员有更好的机会通过观察珊瑚骨骼和贝壳等生物矿物中的结晶来了解结晶，这些生物矿物中的晶体在室温、环境压力下生长，生长速度非常非常缓慢，需要一天左右的时间才能结晶。这项研究将涉及科学和学术界代表性不足的少数族裔的才华横溢的本科生，并让他们发表同行评审的期刊文章，就像这些研究人员以前所做的那样。技术描述观察结晶过程可以揭示瞬态前体相的存在或不存在，这些前体相可以是晶体或无定形矿物。初步的、未发表的、未经证实的数据表明，生物矿物形成有两种瞬时前体：结晶和非晶态。瞬态结晶相以前仅在一种生物矿物、浮游有孔虫中观察到一次，而瞬态非晶相已在海胆针和刺、软体动物壳和珊瑚骨骼中广泛且反复地观察到。首席研究员和她的团队将通过分析他们已有的数据和新的数据，努力探索许多不同生物矿物中瞬态晶体前体的存在，这些数据是关于新的、未开发的生物矿物：腕足动物和底栖有孔虫。他们将开发软件来构建能量景观，确定所有瞬态和稳定相的结晶率，然后使用该软件分析新旧数据。他们将开发机器学习和主成分分析，以在新旧数据中寻找新的、未知的矿物相。即使他们发现大多数生物矿物中不存在瞬态晶相，新的能源景观、新的生物矿物及其形成机制，以及机器学习在新旧数据中识别出的潜在新相将使这项研究产生多个有趣的发现，同时雇用和培训有才华的、代表性不足的本科生。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Orientation-controlled crystallization of γ-glycine films with enhanced piezoelectricity

具有增强压电性的γ-甘氨酸薄膜的取向控制结晶

• DOI: 10.1039/d2tb00997h
• 发表时间: 2022
• 期刊: Journal of Materials Chemistry B
• 影响因子: 7
• 作者: Sui, Jiajie;Li, Jun;Gu, Long;Schmidt, Connor A.;Zhang, Ziyi;Shao, Yan;Gazit, Ehud;Gilbert, Pupa U.;Wang, Xudong
• 通讯作者: Wang, Xudong

Black Drum Fish Teeth: Built for Crushing Mollusk Shells

• DOI: 10.1016/j.actbio.2021.10.023
• 发表时间: 2021-12-11
• 期刊: ACTA BIOMATERIALIA
• 影响因子: 9.7
• 作者: Deng, Zhifei;Loh, Hyun-Chae;Li, Ling
• 通讯作者: Li, Ling

Biomineral mesostructure

• DOI: 10.1557/s43577-023-00479-7
• 发表时间: 2023-03
• 期刊: MRS Bulletin
• 影响因子: 5
• 作者: P. Gilbert

Deep learning virtual indenter maps nanoscale hardness rapidly and non-destructively, revealing mechanism and enhancing bioinspired design

• DOI: 10.1016/j.matt.2023.03.031
• 发表时间: 2023-04
• 期刊: Matter
• 影响因子: 18.9
• 作者: Andrew J. Lew;C. Stifler;A. Cantamessa;A. Tits;D. Ruffoni;P. Gilbert;M. Buehler