Preparation and characterization of three-dimensional chrysanthemun flower-like calcium carbonate

Calcium carbonate with three-dimensional chrysanthemun flower-like structure was successfully prepared from calcium chloride and sodium carbonate ethanol/water mixed solution by a simple precipitation method, using trisodium citrate as crystal modifier. The experimental results show that the three-dimensional structure of chrysanthemun flower-like calcium carbonate is built up with several symmetrical micrometer multi-layer petals arranged around the multi-layer pancake-liked center, and the micrometer center and petals are assemblied by a large number of nanometer spherical particles with size 10–20 nm. It is found that the amount of trisodium citrate, the ethanol volume content has an important influence on the formation of this morphology. A possible mechanism is proposed to explain the formation of three-dimensional chrysanthemun flower-like calcium carbonate according the results. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), flourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimety analysis (TG), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) equipped with energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) were used to characterize the crystals.