A staining agent for biological silica
- 23 July 1990
- journal article
- research article
- Published by The Royal Society in Proceedings Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences
- Vol. 241 (1300) , 47-50
- https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1990.0064
Abstract
The use of bis (cytopentadienyl) titanium dichloride, TiCp$_{2}$Cl$_{2}$, as a surface hydroxyl staining agent for biological silicas has been investigated by optical density measurements and electron microscopy including X-ray microanalysis. For synthetic silica samples agreement exists between optical density measurements on bulk samples and X-ray analytical data on microscopic sample regions. Studies on heterogeneous biological silicas have, therefore, allowed identification of structural motifs by the level of titanium `stain' incorporation. The variation in surface hydroxyl concentration for silica motifs within a single cell sample suggests a high level of biological control over both polymerization and aggregation of silica.This publication has 4 references indexed in Scilit:
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