Related papers: Template induced precursor formation in heterogene…
Studies of nucleation generally focus on the properties of the critical cluster, but the presence of defects within the crystal lattice means that the population of nuclei necessarily evolve through a distribution of pre-critical clusters…
Self-closing assembly is prone to polymorphism due to thermally-excited bending fluctuations, which permit the formation of off-target assemblies at the point of self-closure. One way to overcome this source of polymorphism is to use…
The crystallization of complex, concentrated alloys can result in atomic-level short-range order, composition gradients, and phase separation. These features govern the properties of the resulting alloy. While nucleation and growth in…
Since its introduction in 1952, Turing's (pre-)pattern theory ("the chemical basis of morphogenesis") has been widely applied to a number of areas in developmental biology. The related pattern formation models normally comprise a system of…
The coexistence of distinct templates is a common feature of the diverse proposals advanced to resolve the information crisis of prebiotic evolution. However, achieving robust template coexistence turned out to be such a difficult demand…
Crystallization is one of the most important phase transformations of first order. In the case of metals and alloys, the liquid phase is the parent phase of materials production. The conditions of the crystallization process control the…
Full nucleation control for deposited functional molecules on pre-patterned surfaces is of major technological relevance. To understand the nucleation behavior we combine the numerical solution for the evolution of the adatom concentration…
Understanding the mechanisms underlying crystal formation is crucial. For most systems, crystallization typically goes through a nucleation process that involves dynamics that happen at short time and length scales. Due to this, molecular…
Understanding polymorph selection in atomic and molecular systems and its control through thermodynamic conditions and external factors (such as seed characteristics) is fundamental to the design of targeted materials and holds great…
Nucleation plays a critical role in the birth of crystals and is associated with a vast array of phenomena such as protein crystallization and ice formation in clouds. Despite numerous experimental and theoretical studies, many aspects of…
We study polymorph selection in a model of charged colloids, with a focus on the higher-order structure prior to and during nucleation. Specifically, we carry out molecular dynamics simulations of a repulsive Yukawa system with a slightly…
The pre-patterning of a substrate to create energetically more attractive or repulsive regions allows one to generate a variety of structures in physical vapor deposition experiments. A particular interesting structure is generated if the…
We explore the use of templated self-assembly to facilitate the formation of complex target structures made from patchy particles. First, we consider the templating of high-symmetry shell structures around a spherical core particle. We find…
Heterogeneous nucleation is a process wherein extrinsic impurities facilitate freezing by lowering nucleation barriers and constitutes the dominant mechanism for crystallization in most systems. Classical nucleation theory (\textsc{Cnt})…
The properties of template-directed nucleation are studied close to the transition where full nucleation control is lost and additional nucleation occurs beyond the pre-patterned regions. First, kinetic Monte Carlo simulations are performed…
Homogeneous nucleation processes are important for understanding solidification and the resulting microstructure of materials. Simulating this process requires accurately describing the interactions between atoms, hich is further…
The aim of this work is the development of scientifically based ways of influencing the process of nucleation of crystallization centres to control the cast structure and the properties of blanks at the casting stage. The possibility of…
The theory of multistate template-directed reversible copolymerization is developed by extending the method based on iterated function systems to matrices, taking into account the possibility of multiple activation states instead of a…
We developed a rapid polymorphic screening approach based on contracting sessile microdroplets which offers several advantages: (1) achieves very high supersaturation to facilitate formation of metastable forms (2) allows systematic…
Despite its fundamental and technological importance, a microscopic understanding of the crystallization process is still elusive. By computer simulations of the hard-sphere model we reveal the mechanism by which thermal fluctuations drive…