Calcium carbonate crystallization in the presence of taurine.

The kinetics of calcite (CaCO(3)) crystallization on calcite seed crystals in the presence of taurine was investigated by the constant composition method. The presence of taurine (4 x 10(- 5)- 4 x 10(-4)M) in the supersaturated solutions lead to calcite crystals with a characteristic discontinuous planes of growth and poor habit, as compared to the hombohedral morphology of the seed crystals. The acceleration effect of taurine on the crystal growth rate was 17-96%. The apparent order of the crystal growth was found to be 2.0+/- 0.2 typical for a surface diffusion-controlled spiral growth processes.