Maryam Afzali Presents at Bragg Centre PhD Colloquium 2023
Maryam Afzali presented her work on the Impact of Sample Preparation on CaCO3 Crystallization Process using EM at the Bragg Centre PhD Colloquium on 6 June 2023.
Maryam’s talk was about how sample preparation significantly affects the formation of calcium carbonate as a function of time. She also discussed how Cryo-TEM is the best technique that can be used to study the early stages of crystallization. This is because Cryo-TEM allows for observation of the sample in its native frozen state.
Figure: Cryo-EM images of 4.5 mM CaCO3 indicating (A) the presence of ACC particles as well as dense region of higher contrast after 5 minutes of crystallisation reaction. Inset: selected area electron diffraction confirming the amorphous nature of the particles. (B) Showing increased population of ACC particles together with emergence of calcite after 40 minutes of reaction. Inset: SAED confirming the presence of calcite.