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Science 21 February 2003:
Vol. 299. no. 5610, pp. 1205 - 1208
DOI: 10.1126/science.1079204
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Reports

Direct Fabrication of Large Micropatterned Single Crystals

Joanna Aizenberg,1* David A. Muller,1 John L. Grazul,1 D. R. Hamann12

Micropatterning of single crystals for technological applications is a complex, multistep process. Nature provides alternative fabrication strategies, when crystals with exquisite micro-ornamentation directly develop within preorganized frameworks. We report a bio-inspired approach to growing large micropatterned single crystals. Micropatterned templates organically modified to induce the formation of metastable amorphous calcium carbonate were imprinted with calcite nucleation sites. The template-directed deposition and crystallization of the amorphous phase resulted in the fabrication of millimeter-sized single calcite crystals with sub-10-µm patterns and controlled crystallographic orientation. We suggest that in addition to regulating the shape, micropatterned frameworks act as sites for stress and impurity release during the amorphous-to-crystalline transition. The proposed mechanisms may have direct biological relevance and broad implications in materials synthesis.

1 Bell Laboratories/Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ 07974, USA.
2 Mat-Sim Research, Murray Hill, NJ 07974, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: jaizenberg{at}lucent.com

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