(468e) Bimodal Impacts of Modifiers on Nucleation and Growth: Case of Calcium Oxalate Monohydrate

Modifiers (ions, molecules, and macromolecules) are effective at modulating nucleation and growth of crystalline materials. These species are capable of influencing the kinetics and thermodynamics of the crystallization process. Recent studies have show evidence that a number of these modifiers can have non-monotonic behavior (i.e. can act in two or even more ways on the growing crystals). The current work focuses on using calcium oxalate monohydrate (COM) crystals and the impact of divalent ions on its crystallization. Combined bulk and interfacial studies have indicated that these divalent ions have bimodal effect on COM mineralization. Insights on the study may provide further support on the ubiquity of bimodal actions of modifiers on crystallization.