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Dissolution and storage stability of nanostructured calcium carbonates and phosphates for nutrition

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Abstract

Rapid calcium (Ca) dissolution from nanostructured Ca phosphate and carbonate (CaCO3) powders may allow them to be absorbed in much higher fraction in humans. Nanosized Ca phosphate and CaCO3 made by flame-assisted spray pyrolysis were characterized by nitrogen adsorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. As-prepared nanopowders contained both CaCO3 and CaO, but storing them under ambient conditions over 130 days resulted in a complete transformation into CaCO3, with an increase in both crystal and particle sizes. The small particle size could be stabilized against such aging by cation (Mg, Zn, Sr) and anion (P) doping, with P and Mg being most effective. Calcium phosphate nanopowders made at Ca:P ≤ 1.5 were XRD amorphous and contained γ-Ca2P2O7 with increasing hydroxyapatite content at higher Ca:P. Aging of powders with Ca:P = 1.0 and 1.5 for over 500 days gradually increased particle size (but less than for CaCO3) without a change in phase composition or crystallinity. In 0.01 M H3PO4 calcium phosphate nanopowders dissolved ≈4 times more Ca than micronsized compounds and about twice more Ca than CaCO3 nanopowders, confirming that nanosizing and/or amorphous structuring sharply increases Ca powder dissolution. Because higher Ca solubility in vitro generally leads to greater absorption in vivo, these novel FASP-made Ca nanostructured compounds may prove useful for nutrition applications, including supplementation and/or food fortification.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Seline Staub for her assistance with production and analysis of the carbonate-containing powders. Also, the authors would like to thank Burgerstein Vitamins, Switzerland, for donating Ca compounds used in these studies. TEM measurements were taken at ScopeM (ETH Zurich). This work was financially supported by ETH Research Grant ETH-06 10-1 and the Swiss South African Joint Research Programme (project number IZLSZ3_149090).

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Correspondence to Jesper T. N. Knijnenburg.

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Lidija Posavec and Jesper T.N. Knijnenburg contributed equally to this work.

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Posavec, L., Knijnenburg, J.T.N., Hilty, F.M. et al. Dissolution and storage stability of nanostructured calcium carbonates and phosphates for nutrition. J Nanopart Res 18, 310 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-016-3608-6

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