Related papers: Self-similarity in creeping salt crystallization
We present a dynamical model of crystal growth, in which it is possible to reliably achieve asymmetric products, beginning from symmetric initial conditions and growing within an isotropic environment. The asymmetric growth is the result of…
As the beneficial effects of curcumin have often been reported to be limited to its small concentrations, we have undertaken a study to find the aggregation properties of curcumin in water by varying the number of monomers. Our molecular…
Icicles form when cool water drips from an overhanging support under ambient conditions which are below freezing. Ice growth is controlled by the removal of latent heat, which is transferred into the surrounding air via a thin film of water…
Accumulation of particles while flowing past constrictions is a ubiquitous phenomenon observed in diverse systems. Some of the common examples are jamming of salt crystals near the orifice of salt shakers, clogging of filter systems,…
Salt playas with their tessellated surface of polygonal salt ridges are beautiful and intriguing, but the scientific community lacks a realistic and physically meaningful model that thoroughly explains their formation. In this work, we…
Rapid solidification leads to unique microstructural features, where a less studied topic is the formation of various crystalline defects, including high dislocation densities, as well as gradients and splitting of the crystalline…
Mesocrystals are nanostructured materials consisting of individual nanocrystals having a preferred crystallographic orientation. On mesoscopic length scales, the properties of mesocrystals are strongly affected by structural heterogeneity.…
Recent advances in classical density functional theory are combined with stochastic process theory and rare event techniques to formulate a theoretical description of nucleation, including crystallization, that can predict nonclassical…
Crystalline materials exhibit an hysteresis behaviour when deformed cyclically. The origins of this tension-compression asymmetry have been fully understood only recently as being caused by an asymmetry in the junction strength and a…
A drop of aqueous potato starch gel with a certain mole fraction of NaCl, when dried on a glass slide, exhibits strong segregation and intricate pattern formation phenomena. The salt forms radial dendritic crystalline aggregates near the…
Unlike atoms, colloidal particles are not identical, but can only be synthesised within a finite size tolerance. Colloids are therefore polydisperse, i.e. mixtures of infinitely many components with sizes drawn from a continuous…
Spatial self-similarity is a hallmark of critical phenomena. We study the dynamic process of percolation, in which bonds are incrementally added to an initially empty lattice until the system becomes fully occupied. By tracking the gap --…
Evaporation from a porous medium partially saturated with saline water, causes the salinity (salt concentration) to increase near the top of the porous medium as water leaves while salt stays behind. As the density of the water increases…
Superhydrophobcity is a well-known wetting phenomenon found in numerous plants and insects. It is achieved by the combination of the surfaces chemical properties and its surface roughness. Inspired by nature, numerous synthetic…
From fairy circles to patterned ground and columnar joints, natural patterns spontaneously appear in many complex geophysical settings. Here, we investigate the origins of polygonally patterned crusts of salt playa and salt pans. These…
Herein, fundamentals of topology and symmetry breaking are used to understand crystallization and geometrical frustration in topologically close-packed structures. This frames solidification from a new perspective that is unique from…
Understanding the out-of equilibrium behaviour of point defects in crystals, yields insights into the nature and fragility of the ordered state, as well as being of great practical importance. In some rare cases defects are spontaneously…
Complex colloidal cluster morphologies are desirable for the fabrication of advanced materials, such as photonic crystals and meta-materials, and can be formed through evaporation-driven packing. By coupling lattice Boltzmann and discrete…
High-redshift star-forming galaxies have very different morphologies compared to nearby ones. Indeed, they are often dominated by bright star-forming structures of masses up to $10^{8-9}$ $\mathrm{M}_\odot$ dubbed {\guillemotleft}giant…
We report small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) experiments on aqueous dispersions of colloidal silica with a broad monomodal size distribution (polydispersity 18%, size 8 nm). Over a range of volume fractions the silica particles segregate…