Do Surface Wetting Properties Affect Calcium Carbonate Heterogeneous Nucleation and Adhesion?

We study the effect of wetting properties on the propensity of a surface to heterogeneously nucleate or adsorb calcium carbonate from a saturated aqueous solution. Glass, silanized glass, and polyethylene surfaces are considered. UV-ozone is used to tune the wetting behavior from hydrophobic to hydrophilic by forming oxidized carbon groups (alcohol, aldehyde, carboxylic). For all substrates that do not promote any specific orientation of CaCO3 crystals, increasing hydrophilicity inhibits CaCO3 nucleation. Complete ⟨104⟩ and ⟨001⟩ crystal orientations relative to the substrate plane are obtained for silanized glass exposed to prolonged UV-ozone treatment; nucleation densities are then also considerably higher. Our results highlight the role of interfacial surface energies and orientation in heterogeneous crystal nucleation and adsorption phenomena and contribute to the rational design of antiscaling surface treatments.