Researchers at at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the University of Washington, Zhejiang University and  Xiamen University, led by the group of Jim De Yoreo, used Hummingbird Scientific’s in-situ TEM dual-flow mixing liquid cell  to study amorphous to crystalline transformations of calcium carbonate.  They studied this transformation with multiple additives in solution and showed that certain specific additives uniquely cause a shape-preserving amorphous to crystalline transformation. Their research was published in PNAS.

 

In situ liquid cell TEM observations of direct ACC transformation in the presence of 5 mM Mg 2+.( A–F) Growth and direct transformation of ACC particles showing the shape-preserving transformation.  Copyright 2020 National Academy of Sciences

Reference: Zhaoming Liu, Zhisen Zhang, Zheming Wang, Biao Jin, Dongsheng Li, Jinhui Tao, Ruikang Tang, and James J. De Yoreo, “Shape-preserving amorphous-to-crystalline transformation of CaCO₃ revealed by in situ TEM” PNAS February 18, 2020 117 (7) 3397-3404; first published February 3, 2020 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1914813117