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Dujin Wang

Publications and source records attributed to Dujin Wang.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Oriented aggregation and novel phase transformation of vaterite controlled by the synergistic effect of calcium dodecyl sulfate and n-pentanol.

Calcium dodecyl sulfate (CDS) was used for the first time both as an anionic surfactant and as the source of mineral ions in the precipitation process of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). The simple reaction of the enriched Ca2+ ions at the so-called organic-inorganic interfaces with the slowly bubbled CO2 gas resulted in the metastable vaterite polymorph with various structures. The single-crystalline vaterite of the hexagonal platelets, the lens-shaped structures with hexagonal symmetry, the olive-shaped superstructures and these with a concave at each top of olives, and another metastable polymorph of aragonite were obtained, respectively, depending upon the concentration ratio between CDS and n-pentanol. The synergistic effect of CDS and n-pentanol is believed to play a crucial role in driving the oriented aggregation of metastable nanoparticles. Simultaneously, the novel phase transformation of vaterite to aragonite was observed, implying the possible formation mechanism of aragonite at room temperature and in the absence of magnesium ions.

Calcium Carbonate↗
PubMed2006

Crystallization behaviors of n-nonadecane in confined space: observation of metastable phase induced by surface freezing.

Crystallization and phase transition behaviors of n-nonadecane in microcapsules with a diameter of about 5 mum were studied with the combination of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and synchrotron radiation X-ray diffraction (XRD). As evident from the DSC measurement, a surface freezing monolayer, which is formed in the microcapsules before the bulk crystallization, induces a novel metastable rotator phase (R(II)), which has not been reported anywhere else. We argue that the existence of the surface freezing monolayer decreases the nucleating potential barrier of the R(II) phase and induces its appearance, while the lower free energy in the confined geometry turns the transient R(II) phase to a "long-lived" metastable phase.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2006

Interplay between two phase transitions: crystallization and liquid-liquid phase separation in a polyolefin blend.

The interplay between liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) and crystallization at several compositions in statistical copolymer blends of poly(ethyleneco-hexene) and poly(ethylene-cobutene) has been examined by optical microscopy (OM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The phase contrast optical microscopy shows interconnected bicontinuous structures for deeply quenched LLPS, characteristic of spinodal decomposition. After a second quench to a temperature below the melting point, an overwhelming change in crystallization kinetics has been clearly observed, which is caused by the increase of the nucleation rate assisted by concentration fluctuations due to the spontaneous spinodal LLPS. We propose a new mechanism of "fluctuation assisted nucleation" in the crystallization process for such interactive process in a blend system. The experimental results from OM, AFM, and DSC measurements at various conditions are all consistent with the fluctuation assisted nucleation model.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2006

Properties of amorphous calcium carbonate and the template action of vaterite spheres.

The fast mixing of aqueous solutions of calcium chloride and sodium carbonate could immediately result in amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC). Under vigorous stirring, the formed ACC in the precipitation system will dissolve first and, then, transform within minutes to produce crystalline forms of vaterite and calcite. After that, the solution-mediated mechanism dominates the transformation of the thermodynamically unstable vaterite into the thermodynamically stable calcite. Although ACC is the least stable form of the six anhydrous phases of calcium carbonate (CaCO(3)), it could be, however, produced and stabilized by a variety of organisms. To better understand the formation-transformation mechanism of ACC and vaterite into calcite, ex-situ methods (i.e., scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy) were used to characterize the formation-transformation process of ACC and vaterite in aqueous systems without organic additives, showing that ACC sampled at different conditions has different properties (i.e., lifetime, morphology, and spectrum characterization). It is also very interesting to capture the obviously polycrystalline particles of CaCO(3) during the transformation process from vaterite to calcite, which suggests the formation mechanism for the calcite superstructure with multidimensional morphology.

Calcium Carbonate↗
PubMed2005

Crystallization and aggregation behaviors of calcium carbonate in the presence of poly(vinylpyrrolidone) and sodium dodecyl sulfate.

An anionic surfactant interacts strongly with a polymer molecule to form a self-assembled structure, due to the attractive force of the hydrophobic association and electrostatic repulsion. In this crystallization medium, the surfactant-stabilized inorganic particles adsorbed on the polymer chains, as well as the bridging effect of polymer molecules, controlled the aggregation behavior of colloidal particles. In this presentation, the spontaneous precipitation of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) was conducted from the aqueous systems containing a water-soluble polymer (poly(vinylpyrrolidone), PVP) and an anionic surfactant (sodium dodecyl sulfate, SDS). When the SDS concentrations were lower than the onset of interaction between PVP and SDS, the precipitated CaCO3 crystals were typically hexahedron-shaped calcite; the increasing SDS concentration caused the morphologies of CaCO3 aggregates to change from the flower-shaped calcite to hollow spherical calcite, then to solid spherical vaterite. These results indicate that the self-organized configurations of the polymer/surfactant supramolecules dominate the morphologies of CaCO3 aggregates, implying that this simple and versatile method expands the morphological investigation of the mineralization process.

Calcium Carbonate↗
PubMed2004

Petunia-shaped superstructures of CaCO3 aggregates modulated by modified chitosan.

This paper presents the crystallization behavior of calcium carbonate at the air/liquid interface of aqueous systems of carboxymethyl chitosan (CMCS) using the Kitano method. Although the synthesized CMCS (Mw approximately 100,000) with 1.57 degree of carboxymethyl substitution shows no surface activity, it controls the crystallization of calcium carbonate to form a petunia-shaped superstructure. The shuttlecock-like head of this superstructure strongly supports Colfen's opinion (Rudloff, J.; Colfen, H. Langmuir 2004, 20, 991-996) for the existence of a gas template of CO2 bubbles temporarily captured by polymer molecules, while formation of the stem of this superstructure is provisionally attributed to the presence of the strong electrostatic interactions between calcium ions and the carboxylate groups. The CaCO3 superstructure and its morphology depend not only on the polymer concentration but also on the combined number of calcium ions per CMCS molecule. These results imply that this simple and versatile method expands the morphological investigation of mineralization processes.

Air↗