Fabrication of Organic/Inorganic Fusion Materials Inspired by Biomineralization

Abstract

Biomineralization is biosynthetic process to form the biominerals such as bones, teeth, and seashells, that has been focused because it enables the fabrication of accurately controlled inorganic crystal and addition of functionality based on the hybrid structure between organic and inorganic matters. In the previous studies, mechanisms of nucleation and crystal growth of inorganic matter have discussed from investigation utilizing many kinds of organic template (protein, peptide, and synthetic macromolecule). Moreover, development of organic/inorganic fusion materials inspired by biomineralization has been demonstrated potentiality as biomaterials for medical application. In this review, we discuss the effects of two- and three-dimensional ordered templates utilizing self-assembly of biomacromolecules such as peptide and nucleopeptide on the nucleation and growth mechanism of inorganic crystals formed by mineralization.