Pressure-Induced Polyamorphism and Formation of 'Aragonitic' Amorphous Calcium Carbonate
Amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) undergoes a reversible amorphous–amorphous phase transition at 10 GPa, adopting an aragonite-like local order. This result suggests a mechanism by which Mg 2+ —a cation with smaller ionic radius than Ca 2+ —modifies the local order of ACC to an aragonite-like order by helping to decrease the molar volume of the amorphous phase.