Connor A Schmidt, Eric Tambutté, Alexander A Venn, Zhaoyong Zou, Cristina Castillo Alvarez, Laurent S Devriendt, Hans A Bechtel, Cayla A Stifler, Samantha Anglemyer, Carolyn P Breit, Connor L Foust, Andrii Hopanchuk, Connor N Klaus, Isaac J Kohler, Isabelle M LeCloux, Jaiden Mezera, Madeline R Patton, Annie Purisch, Virginia Quach, Jaden S Sengkhammee, Tarak Sristy, Shreya Vattem, Evan J Walch, Marie Albéric, Yael Politi, Peter Fratzl, Sylvie Tambutté, Pupa U P A Gilbert
Calcium carbonate (CaCO3 ) is abundant on Earth, is a major component of marine biominerals and thus of sedimentary and metamorphic rocks and it plays a major role in the global carbon cycle by storing atmospheric CO2 into solid biominerals. Six crystalline polymorphs of CaCO3 are known-3 anhydrous: calcite, aragonite, vaterite, and 3 hydrated: ikaite (CaCO3 ·6H2 O), monohydrocalcite (CaCO3 ·1H2 O, MHC), and calcium carbonate hemihydrate (CaCO3 ·½H2 O, CCHH). CCHH was recently discovered and characterized, but exclusively as a synthetic material, not as a naturally occurring mineral...
February 28, 2024: Nature Communications