Morphology of BaSO₄ crystals grown on templates of varying dimensionality: the case of cysteine-capped gold nanoparticles (0-D), DNA (1-D), and lipid bilayer stacks (2-D)

Abstract

Control over the morphology of ceramic crystals by biomimetic processes is an important goal in contemporary materials engineering. While many parameters have been previously studied in such morphology control, the dimensionality of the crystallization template is one aspect that has not received much attention hitherto. In this paper, we examine the change in morphology of BaSO₄ crystals as they are grown on templates such as cysteine-modified colloidal gold particles (0-D), DNA (1-D), and within lipid bilayers stacks (2-D) at two significantly different supersaturation ratios. It is observed that large changes in the morphology of barite crystals occur, and tentative reasons are put forward to explain these changes.