Ellen C. Keene

SEM: Leica(440)-Bard

This image is poly-crystalline calcite (a polymorph of calcium carbonate). The crystal is grown within a silk fibroin hydrogel on top of a carboxyl terminated self assembled monolayer on gold. Calcite is normally a rhombohedra structure. Using a silk fibroin hydrogel, multiple calcite crystals were forced to grow radially outward from one nucleating center in a pom-pom pattern.

Materials Science and Engineering
Advisor         Lara Estroff