Morphology and internal structure of barium sulfate--derivation of a new growth mechanism

Particle formation is the decisive step to control crystal morphology. Besides the classical primary processes, nucleation and molecular growth, the particle size can also increase by aggregation. The special case of self-assembled aggregation leads to the formation of highly ordered particles which often possess a porous internal structure. In the experiments of these studies the particle formation of barium sulfate has been investigated. SEM analysis shows a large variety of growth forms including plate-like, star-like, and spherical particles, whereas TEM exposures reveal the porous internal structure at all investigated supersaturation levels. The pore size and the volume fraction can be influenced by changing the supersaturation ratio. By means of a fast sampling technique in combination with cryo-TEM analysis it has been shown that the particles at the early stages of growth shortly after the beginning of nucleation consist of many small nanocrystallites which have aggregated in a highly ordered manner. The diffraction pattern indicates many small-angle grain boundaries, whereas the particles at the end of the precipitation process are monocrystalline. This leads to the conclusion that barium sulfate grows according to a self-assembled aggregation mechanism followed by a fast recrystallization process.