It has many applications: coating pigment for premium quality paper products in paper industry, fillers in rubber and paints in polymer applications, and calcium-based antacid tablets in healthcare. This suggests that surface analysis techniques are as powerful as conventional bulk analysis to discriminate calcium carbonate polymorphs.Ĭalcium carbonate is commonly found in many forms, for example as limestone, as the calcareous exoskeleton of marine animals, and as boiler scales. Three polymorphs of calcium carbonate cluster into three different groups by PCA scores. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to analyze the TOF-SIMS data. The different atomic arrangement in the crystal lattice, which provides for a different chemical environment, can explain this surface difference. XPS results clearly demonstrate that the surfaces of these three polymorphs are different as seen in the Ca(2p) and O(1s) core-level spectra. Two surface analysis techniques, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy (TOF-SIMS), were used to differentiate the surfaces of these three polymorphs of calcium carbonate.
Three conventional bulk analysis techniques, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and SEM, were used to confirm the crystal phase of each polymorphic calcium carbonate. calcite, aragonite, and vaterite were synthesized. Three polymorphs of calcium carbonate, i.e. Calcium carbonate has evoked interest owing to its use as a biomaterial, and for its potential in biomineralization.