Recovering and Exploiting Aragonite and Calcite Single Crystals with Biologically Controlled Shapes from Mussel Shells Triunfo, Carla Gómez Morales, Jaime This research was performed under the Bluebio ERANET project CASEAWA (grant no.: 161B0949). This study represents partial fulfillment of the requirements for the International FishMed-PhD thesis of C.T. J.G.M acknowledges the CASEAWA project, grant no. PCI2020-112108 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (Spain) and the EU “NextGenerationEU”/PRTR”. PCI2020-112108 is part of the ERANET Cofund BlueBio Programme supported by the European Union. Control over the shape and morphology of single crystals is a theme of great interest in fundamental science and for technological application. Many synthetic strategies to achieve this goal are inspired by biomineralization processes. Indeed, organisms are able to produce crystals with high fidelity in shape and morphology utilizing macromolecules that act as modifiers. An alternative strategy can be the recovery of crystals from biomineralization products, in this case, seashells. In particular, waste mussel shells from aquaculture are considered. They are mainly built up of single crystals of calcite fibers and aragonite tablets forming an outer and an inner layer, respectively. A simple mechanochemical treatment has been developed to separate and recover these two typologies of single crystals. The characterization of these single crystals showed peculiar properties with respect to the calcium carbonate from quarry or synthesis. We exploited these biomaterials in the water remediation field using them as substrate adsorbing dyes. We found that these substrates show a high capability of adsorption for anionic dye, such as Eosin Y, but a low capability of adsorption for cationic dyes, such as Blue Methylene. The adsorption was reversible at pH 5.6. This application represents just an example of the potential use of these biogenic single crystals. We also envision potential applications as reinforcing fillers and optical devices. 2023-10-16T11:34:24Z 2023-10-16T11:34:24Z 2022-11-17 journal article Carla Triunfo, Stefanie Gärtner, Chiara Marchini, Simona Fermani, Gabriele Maoloni, Stefano Goffredo, Jaime Gomez Morales, Helmut Cölfen, and Giuseppe Falini. Recovering and Exploiting Aragonite and Calcite Single Crystals with Biologically Controlled Shapes from Mussel Shells. ACS Omega 2022 7 (48), 43992-43999. [DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.2c05386] https://hdl.handle.net/10481/85027 10.1021/acsomega.2c05386 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ open access Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional American Chemical Society