| abstract |
A process for controlling the formation of ceramics, achievable under ambient conditions, includes preparing a crystallization medium of a ceramic parent solution and spreading an organic monolayer of a hydrogen-bonded network on the air-liquid interface of the solution. For the formation of aragonite, the process uses an undoped calcium bicarbonate solution and a hydrogen-bonded network with a structural motif approximately matching a calcium ion distance in the a-c plane of aragonite. The aragonite product formed has a [010] axis approximately perpendicular to the monolayer. For perovskite materials, such as BSTO ceramics, the microstructure of the product is controlled by changing different functional groups of the organic monolayer which has been spread on the surface of a perovskite parent solution. |