Lamellar aluminophosphates with surface patterns that mimic diatom and radiolarian microskeletons

Abstract

ORGANISMS such as diatoms and radiolaria synthesize elaborate biomineral exoskeletons which display hierarchical structures patterned on length scales from less than a micrometre to millimetres. Synthetic materials chemistry, in contrast, has traditionally been able to achieve regular patterning only on microscopic (<10 Å) and more recently^1–3 mesoscopic (10–10³ Å) length scales. Here we report the synthesis of crystalline, lamellar aluminophosphate structures that are patterned on the submicrometre-to-millimetre scales found in the living world. As in the syntheses of ordered mesoporous solids^1–3, our approach involves templating by self-assembled organic aggregates, and we propose that the larger scale of the patterning here arises from the involvement of vesicle templates rather than the micelle-like or bilayer structures thought to be responsible for mesoscale pattern formation^1–3.