Introduction to the special issue on biomineralization

The field of biomineralization is all about crystal formation and how biology designs and controls this process. During the last decade interest in this field has been explosive. New discoveries related to the understanding of biological strategies of materials formation, as well as their application to different areas of materials sciences recently emerged, which fundamentally change our views of some processes involved. The reports on these discoveries are, however, dispersed all over the scientific literature. This issue of CrystEngComm encapsulates these new developments, presenting the state-of-the-art in biomineralization, while focusing on aspects of crystal engineering.

Crystal engineering is a characteristically interdisciplinary science extending from crystal structure characterization to the design and understanding of crystal growth mechanisms and crystal properties. It is thus well positioned to monitor the development of biomineralization, a field that has its roots in the 19th century, but is currently undergoing a renaissance. For the crystal engineering community this issue is an opportunity to obtain an overview of this exciting field of science. For the biomineralization community, this issue is an up-to-date presentation on where things stand in the more structurally oriented area of the field.

A most interesting development in biomineralization, well represented in this issue, is the realization that transient amorphous precursors of crystal formation are widely used by organisms for producing crystals. The use of gel phases, polyelectrolytes, surfactants and thin layers as convenient media to control the microenvironment of crystal formation is becoming better understood. The interactions of these phases with mineral surfaces, together with the fundamental importance of water interactions or water expulsion in determining the fate of biological minerals, are timely issues of much general scientific interest.

This issue contains contributions on characterization of biogenic tissues, their properties and on biological mechanisms of formation, as well as investigations of bio-inspired artificial processes, theoretical analyses and applications. There is also a good representation of experimental approaches and techniques, ranging from more inherently structural approaches, such as advanced Rietveld analyses, grazing incidence X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorption spectroscopy, to crystal growth and nucleation research using AFM, NMR, electron microscopy and microprobe analyses.

I hope that this thematic issue on biomineralization will stimulate interest in the field of biomineralization among the uninitiated, and provide material for fruitful thought for the initiated.

Lia Addadi

Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

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