Phase-field Modeling of Biomineralization?

Presented by: László Gránásy, Wigner Research Centre for Physics, Budapest, Hungary

Abstract

We explore the question whether phase-field models developed for describing complex polycrystalline structures can be adapted to model crystallization in biological systems. A few cases are investigated, where detailed microstructural information is available from synchrotron/electron microscopy experiments: the microstructure of mollusk shells (a bivalve, a cephalopod, and a gastropod) and of coral skeletons. In attempting to model these microstructures, we rely on phase-field techniques that were successfully applied to describe complex polycrystalline structures, such as spherulites, crystal sheaves, disordered dendrites, and fractal-like polycrystalline aggregates and spiraling eutectic dendrites. We show that with appropriate choice of the model parameters microstructures resembling closely to the experimental ones can be obtained. Further work is yet needed to clarify, whether this means a superficial similarity or not.