Solid‐State NMR in Biomimetic Silica Formation and Silica Biomineralization

During the past decades, modern solid-state NMR spectroscopic techniques have found an overwhelming variety of applications in materials science as well as biology. The unicellular, photosynthetic diatoms are well known for their nano-structured silica-based cell walls. These cell walls exhibit intricate species-specific patterns of high regularity and beauty. Diatom cell walls are made up of a composite material containing silica as well as certain biomolecules. It has been shown that solid-state NMR spectroscopy is useful for characterizing both, the silica material as well as the organic molecules embedded within the silica. Isotope enrichment of rare nuclei such as 13C or 29Si allows for the direct detection of the corresponding spectra. Based on the understanding of the physicochemical principles used in natural biosilica formation, silica materials can be synthesized under improved conditions. Such materials can also be studied using solid-state NMR spectroscopic methods.