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Phase diagrams of some globular proteins have a fluid-fluid transition as well as a fluid-crystal transition. Homogeneous nucleation of the crystal from the fluid phase near the critical point of the fluid-fluid transition is examined. As…
Surface tension of small grains and droplets makes them stable only at a much lower temperature than in bulk. This makes spontaneous nucleation unfavorable in many cases. Kinetic approaches are delicate in that one can easily generate…
Nucleation is an activated process in which the system has to overcome a free energy barrier in order for a first-order phase transition between the metastable and the stable phases to take place. In the liquid-to-solid transition the…
Although molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are commonly used to predict the structure and properties of glasses, they are intrinsically limited to short time scales, necessitating the use of fast cooling rates. It is therefore challenging…
The nucleation of crystals from the liquid melt is often characterized by a competition between different crystalline structures or polymorphs, and can result in nuclei with heterogeneous compositions. These mixed-phase nuclei can display…
This study reveals the influence of the surface energy and solid/liquid boundary condition on the breakup mechanism of dewetting ultra-thin polymer films. Using silane self-assembled monolayers, SiO$_2$ substrates are rendered hydrophobic…
Finite size artifacts arise in molecular simulations of nucleation when critical nuclei are too close to their periodic images. A rigorous determination of what constitutes too close is, however, a major challenge. Recently, we devised…
Hydrogen bonds are of paramount importance in the chemistry of clays, mediating the interaction between the clay surface and water, and for some materials between separate layers. It is well-established that the accuracy of a computational…
Our knowledge about the physical processes determining the activity of comets were mainly influenced by several extremely successful space missions, the predictions of theoretical models and the results of laboratory experiments. However,…
All cometary nuclei that formed in the early Solar System incorporated radionuclides and therefore were subject to internal radiogenic heating. Previous work predicts that if comets have a pebble-pile structure internal temperature build-up…
Control of the crystallization process at the microscopic level makes it possible to generate the nanocrystalline samples with the desired structural and morphological properties, that is of great importance for modern industry. In the…
We use molecular dynamic simulations to investigate the relation between the presence of packing defects in a glass-former and the spontaneous cooperative motions called dynamic heterogeneity. For that purpose we use a simple diatomic…
In simulations of supercooled, high-density liquid silica we study a range of temperature T in which we find both crystal nucleation, as well as the characteristic dynamics of a glass forming liquid, including a breakdown of the…
Solute-intercalation-induced phase separation creates spatial heterogeneities in host materials, a phenomenon ubiquitous in batteries, hydrogen storage, and other energy devices. Despite many efforts, probing intercalation processes at the…
Belite -- dicalcium silicate Ca$_2$SiO$_4$ -- is a main constituent of low-carbon cement. In this work, we study several terminations of the (010) surface of $\gamma$-belite, its most stable polymorph, by molecular dynamics simulations. The…
Damage caused by freezing wet, porous materials is a widespread problem, but is hard to predict or control. Here, we show that polycrystallinity makes a great difference to the stress build-up process that underpins this damage. Unfrozen…
Water freezing in particle suspensions widely exists in nature. As a typical physical system of free boundary problem, the spatiotemporal evolution of the solid/liquid interface not only origins from phase transformation but also from…
Targeting specific technological applications requires the control of nanoparticle properties, especially the crystalline polymorph. Freezing a nanodroplet deposited on a solid substrate leads to the formation of crystalline structures. We…
Colloidal gels are out-of-equilibrium structures, made up of a rarefied network of colloidal particles. Comparing experiments to numerical simulations, with hydrodynamic interactions switched off, we demonstrate the crucial role of the…
In this study, using direct digital and infrared imaging techniques, the freezing of up to three simultaneous THF hydrate droplets was investigated for the first time. Nucleation was initiated at the aqueous solution-air interface. Two…