Three-dimensional nucleation and growth under galvanostatic conditions

The nucleation and growth of new phase clusters have been studied under galvanostatic conditions. Time dependences of the overpotential, number, and size of clusters formed on the electrode have been calculated from a model of the electrocrystallization process.     

Particle nucleation and growth models

This review concentrates on the progress of modeling the nucleation process of particles by the balanced nucleation-growth (BNG) process. The BNG model will be compared with other models that try to predict material nucleation. Compared to other models, the BNG model allows quantifying the nucleation rate, maximum growth rate, and supersaturation during the nucleation period as a function of nucleation efficiency and maximum growth rate of the crystals. From this model, equations are derived that correlate the number of stable crystals formed with molar addition rate of reactants, solubility of the crystals, and temperature. The BNG model predicts the experimental result that many crystallization processes result in a limited number of crystals followed by growth. The model also predicts that factors like diffusion and kinetically controlled growth process, Ostwald ripening agents and growth restrainers control the crystal number. Equations are given for each of the variables that agree with experiments. The BNG model predicts the conditions for renucleation (formation of new crystals during precipitation). It leads to new equations for the prediction of crystal number and crystal size during controlled continuous precipitation in the continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) as a function of precipitation conditions.     

Polymers designed to control nucleation and growth of inorganic crystals from aqueous media

Water soluble graft polymers prepared by copolymerization of either methacrylic acid (MAA) or vinylsulfonic acid (VS) with α‐methoxy‐ω‐methacroyl‐oligo(oxyethylene)s (PEO_n‐MA) serve to control nucleation and crystal growth during precipitation of inorganic crystals from aqueous media. Precipitation of zinc oxide crystals (‘zincite’) is used as example for such mineralization processes. Homogeneous and narrow crystal size distributions are obtained in presence of ppm‐amounts of graft copolymers. Copolymer is incorporated into the crystals demonstrated by using latex particles with ‐CO₂H‐group rich surfaces as controlling additives. Incorporation of these particles leads to single crystals with pores of the size of the particles (‘Swiss cheese’ morphologies).     

Crystal growth and classical nucleation theory

Calculations were performed of the crystal growth rates in lithium disilicate glass in the low-temperature regime where homogeneous nucleation is observed. The computations were executed using the gain-loss (Becker–Doring) equations that form the framework of Classical Nucleation Theory (CNT). The growth rates were obtained in several different ways, using various choices for the kinetic model, the generalized diffusion coefficient, and the physical input data. The results of these calculations are compared with recently obtained experimental values of the growth rates.     

Peculiarities of Morphology of Tin Microcrystals Electroplated under Galvanostatic Conditions

Russian Journal of Electrochemistry - Specific features of morphology of structure of tin microcrystals, which form during the electrodeposition under the galvanostatic conditions on the...     

Secondary nucleation and growth of ZnO

Recently we discovered that under certain conditions new crystal growth (branch) can be induced on specific crystalline planes of the same material. This is a new phenomenon and is in sharp contrast to typical nucleation and growth in which a crystal will simply grow larger in preferred directions depending on the surface energy of the specific crystalline planes. Based on our observation, we developed a sequential nucleation and growth technique offering the power to assemble complex hierarchical crystals step-by-step. However, the key questions of when and how the secondary nucleation takes place have not been answered. Here we systematically study secondary ZnO crystal growth using organic diamine additives with a range of chain lengths and concentration. We found that ZnO branches form for a narrow diamine concentration range with a critical lower and upper critical nucleation concentration limit, which increases by about a factor of 5 for each additional carbon in the diaminoalkane chain. Our results suggest that the narrow window for secondary growth is dictated by the solubility of the ZnO crystals, where the low critical nucleation concentration is determined by slight etching of the surface to produce new nucleation sites, and the upper critical concentration is determined by the supersaturation concentration. Kinetic measurements show that the induction time and growth rate increase with increasing diamine concentration and follow classical nucleation and growth theory. Observations of branch morphological evolution reveal the mechanisms guiding the tunable crystal size and morphology.     

Kinetics of electrochemical nucleation and growth

A united scheme for the kinetics of electrochemical nucleation and the growth of a new phase is presented. The peculiarities of ion-transfer kinetics during electrochemical phase formation are analysed. The influence of the exchange current density at the electrolyte/cluster of the new phase interface on the nucleation rate, the nucleation induction time and the growth rate is reported.     

The stage of nonisothermal nucleation of supercritical particles of a new phase under nonstationary conditions of particle diffusion growth and heat transfer to a medium

An analytical theory has been formulated for the stage of nonisothermal nucleation of supercritical particles in a metastable medium with instantaneously generated initial supersaturation. The theory takes into account the nonuniformities of metastable substance concentration and temperature, which result from the nonstationary diffusion of the substance to growing particles and the nonstationary transfer of the heat of the phase transition from the particles to the medium. The formulated theory extends the approach based on the concept of excluded volume that has recently been used in the theory of the stage of nucleation under isothermal conditions. This approach implies that the nucleation intensity of new particles is suppressed in spherical diffusion regions with certain sizes that surround previously nucleated supercritical particles and remaining unchanged in the rest of the medium. It has been shown that, when self-similar solutions are used for nonstationary equations of substance diffusion to particles and heat transfer from the particles, the ratio between the excluded volume and the particle volume is independent of particle size, thereby enabling one to analytically solve the integral equation for the excluded volume throughout a system as a time function at the stage of nucleation. The main characteristics of the phase transition have been found for the end of the stage of nucleation. Comparison has been carried out with the characteristics obtained in terms of the isothermal and nonisothermal nucleation theory upon uniform vapor consumption and heat dissipation (the mean-field approximation of vapor supersaturation and temperature).     

Formation of Adatoms and Crystalline Nuclei at Electrocrystallization of Metals under Galvanostatic Conditions

Russian Journal of Electrochemistry - For correctly analyzing the nucleation processes during metal electrodeposition under galvanostatic conditions, we must take into account that the deposition...     

Theoretical study of the nucleation/growth process of carbon clusters under pressure

We used molecular dynamics and the empirical potential for carbon LCBOPII to simulate the nucleation/growth process of carbon clusters both in vacuum and under pressure. In vacuum, our results show that the growth process is homogeneous and yields mainly sp(2) structures such as fullerenes. We used an argon gas and Lennard-Jones potentials to mimic the high pressures and temperatures reached during the detonation of carbon-rich explosives. We found that these extreme thermodynamic conditions do not affect substantially the topologies of the clusters formed in the process. However, our estimation of the growth rates under pressure are in much better agreement with the values estimated experimentally than our vacuum simulations. The formation of sp(3) carbon was negligible both in vacuum and under pressure which suggests that larger simulation times and cluster sizes are needed to allow the nucleation of nanodiamonds.     

Metadynamics simulations of ice nucleation and growth

The metadynamics method for accelerating rate events in molecular simulations is applied to the problem of ice freezing. We demonstrate homogeneous nucleation and growth of ice at 180 K in the isothermal-isobaric ensemble without the presence of external fields or surfaces. This result represents the first report of continuous and dynamic ice nucleation in a system of freely evolving density. Simulations are conducted using a variety of periodic simulation domains. In all cases the cubic polymorph ice I(c) is grown. The influence of boundary effects on estimates of the nucleation free energy barrier are discussed in relation to differences between this and earlier work.     

Understanding nucleation and growth using computer simulation

Atomistic simulation has been used to examine two distinct problems: (1) the growth of calcium carbonate and how growth inhibitors may operate at the atomic scale and (2) the external surface properties of a zeolite and how these influence the transport of reactants or products at the surface. In the first study we have examined how the class of monophosphonate growth inhibitors disturbs the assembly of calcite at a growing surface. We show that a retarding growth inhibition mechanism is that of kink-blocking, where the poison irreversibly binds to a kink site preventing kink–kink annihilation or step assembly in the vicinity of the impurity. Secondly, we show that two models proposed by Terasaki (O. Terasaki, J. Elec. Micro. 43 (1994) 337), are stable and provide an external surface with characteristic steric and chemical properties. To assess the question of transport, we used a probe molecule of benzene to navigate the energy barrier that separates the external surface and internal surface. We find that the barrier is smaller than that in bulk which suggests that for molecules with relatively small kinetic radii, the rate determining step in the transport process will be in the host medium or crystal bulk.     

聚苯胺的成核及生长机理

本文通过恒电位阶跃法研究了聚苯胺在不同介质中的成核与膜的生长过程动力学。结果表明, 在硫酸介质中, 成核过程为扩散控制下的三维连续成核, 得到疏松、多孔的膜; 而在高氯酸介质中, 成核则是电化学动力学控制下的二维成核过程。在高电位时(E>1.02V, vs, SCE)为二维连续成核过程, 而在较低的电位时, 主要表现为二维瞬时成核, 膜层呈网状且致密。     

Homogeneous nucleation and growth of melt in copper

Molecular dynamics simulations are conducted to investigate homogeneous nucleation and growth of melt in copper described by an embedded-atom method (EAM) potential. The accuracy of this EAM potential for melting is validated by the equilibrium melting point obtained with the solid-liquid coexistence method and the superheating-supercooling hysteresis method. We characterize the atomistic melting process by following the temperature and time evolution of liquid atoms. The nucleation behavior at the extreme superheating is analyzed with the mean-first-passage-time (MFPT) method, which yields the critical size, steady-state nucleation rate, and the Zeldovich factor. The value of the steady-state nucleation rate obtained from the MFPT method is consistent with the result from direct simulations. The size distribution of subcritical nuclei appears to follow a power law similar to three-dimensional percolation. The diffuse solid-liquid interface has a sigmoidal profile with a 10%-90% width of about 12 A near the critical nucleation. The critical size obtained from our simulations is in reasonable agreement with the prediction of classical nucleation theory if the finite interface width is considered. The growth of melt is coupled with nucleation and can be described qualitatively with the Johnson-Meh-Avrami law. System sizes of 10(3)-10(6) atoms are explored, and negligible size dependence is found for bulk properties and for the critical nucleation.     

Electrocrystallisation under conditions of twinning nucleation

The possibility of the formation of nuclei in the twinning position is discussed for the polynuclear mechanism in electrocrystallisation. Some possible experimental consequences are drawn.     

On the coupling between slow diffusion transport and barrier crossing in nucleation

We model the coupling between slow diffusion transport and nucleation using the diffusion equation, an Ostwald-Freundlich boundary condition, and a mass balance linking nucleus size to flux across the nucleus-solution interface. The model retains some characteristics of the classical nucleation theory because of the common theoretical foundations behind classical nucleation theory and the Ostwald-Freundlich equation. For example, the classically critical-sized nucleus in the uniform supersaturated concentration field is an unstable equilibrium point. However, the model also shows that certain types of concentration profiles can drive a classically pre-critical nucleus over the nucleation barrier. We identify the separatrix as a function of both nucleus size and characteristics of the local concentration field. Our analysis may be useful for understanding the effects of local concentration fluctuations and especially for understanding the role of dense precursor particles in driving two-step nucleation processes. Our analysis may also provide a starting point for further statistical field theory analyses of local concentration fluctuations and their effects on nucleation rates.     

Investigation of Ruthenium Thin Layers Electrodeposition Process under Galvanostatic Conditions from Chloride Solutions

Russian Journal of Electrochemistry - In this work, ruthenium coatings were obtained by the galvanostatic deposition onto a copper substrate. The amount of metallic deposit was increasing with the...