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

Novel hollow, bone- like structures of Precipitated Calcium Carbonate (FCC) are fabricated, for the first time, starting from naturally occurring dolomite. The hollow, bone like structures are prepared by precipitating calcium carbonate on sell 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) nanoparLicles in the center and calcite nanoparLicles at the edges. Bone like KC particles are in particle length of 2-3 mu m and particle width of 1 thn. 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 nanoparricles. The ACC particles are stabilized in the center while the calcite crystals have been grown horn 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 FCC in this study. The fabricated hollow, bone-like FCC has potential applications in the preparation of release systems such as drugs, cosmetics and pigments. (C) 2014 Elsevier FN. All rights reserved