Biomimetic Mineralization in and on Polymers

Abstract

Biological mineralization leads to the development of finely scaled, highly controlled inorganic precipitates in organic matrixes. It was initially thought that this control was mainly exercised through lattice-matching epitaxy between the protein or polysaccharide matrix and the mineral. We discuss the importance of such heterogeneous nucleation versus other forms of kinetic control of mineralization. We review progress in synthetic systems for mineralization from solution at Langmuir monolayers and Langmuir−Blodgett films, at surface-adsorbed monolayers and in polymer films.