High Mechanical Strength Alloy-Like Minerals Prepared by Inorganic Ionic Cocrosslinking.

Alloys often combine different metals to generate superior mechanical properties. However, it is challenging to prepare high mechanical strength minerals with similar strategies. Using calcium carbonate (CaC) and calcium phosphate (CaP) as examples, we synthesized a group of compounds with the chemical formulas Ca(CO 3 ) x (PO 4 ) 2(1- x )/3 (0< x <1, CaCPs) by crosslinking ionic oligomers. Unlike mixtures, these CaCPs exhibited a single temperature for the phase transition from amorphous to crystallized CaC (calcite) and CaP (hydroxyapatite). By heat-induced synchronous crystallization, dual-phase CaC/CaP with continuous crystallized boundaries were resembled to alloy-like minerals (ALMs). The mechanical properties of the ALMs were adjusted by tailoring their chemical compositions to reach a hardness of 5.6 GPa, which exceeded those of control calcite and hydroxyapatite samples by 430% and 260%, respectively. This strategy expands the chemical scope of inorganic materials and holds promise for preparing high-performance minerals. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.