On the association between sparingly soluble carbonates and polyelectrolytes

Nucleation of calcium oxalate crystals by albumin: Involvement in the prevention of stone formation

“…At first sight, such activity regarding lithiasis could be considered detrimental because one could assume that keeping the number of CaOx crystals formed in primitive urine to a minimum would facilitate the control of their growth by specific inhibitors. Actually, increasing the number of crystal nuclei would be beneficial because it would decrease CaOx saturation, thereby limiting the size that crystals could reach and favoring their elimination by the urine flow [34]. The fact that healthy subjects have significantly smaller crystals in their urine than stone of commercial serum albumin.…”

Calcium Carbonate Deposition on Cellulose

“…Thus polymers with certain molecular weight and at defined concentration ranges may act as catalysts of the crystal growth process (33)(34)(35)(36). In the case of cellulose ion binding is weak both due to the weak acid-base behavior of the ionizable hydroxyl groups and also because of their stereochemical arrangement.…”

Control of ZnO Crystallization by a PEO-b-PMAA Diblock Copolymer

“…A second major approach is of a purely empirical nature: common surfactants are added to examine their effect on crystallization. Among the often-used reagents are polyelectrolytes. − Selected polyelectrolytes have been used to reduce the rate of crystal growth or to change crystal habits . A disadvantage of the trial-and-error strategy lies in the large number of hardly predictable experiments necessary to receive a polycrystalline material with desired properties.…”