| abstract |
An inexpensive detergent builder in the form of a selected crystalline calcium carbonate is provided. Specifically, the crystalline calcium carbonate has a tabular crystalline structure with {0,1,0} and {1,1,0} crystallographic indices. The crystalline calcium carbonate can be aragonite that has been specially modified to a tabular crystalline structure with {0,1,0} and {1,1,0} crystallographic indices. The crystalline calcium carbonate of the present invention is extremely inexpensive because it can be readily formed from inexpensive naturally occurring aragonite, and it performs well even when used at large median particle sizes. |