Patterning a surface so as to speed nucleation from solution

Lester O. Hedges; Stephen Whitelam

doi:10.1039/c2sm26038g

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arXiv · 1205.0583

Patterning a surface so as to speed nucleation from solution

Lester O. Hedges·Stephen Whitelam

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Abstract

Motivated by the question of how to pattern a surface in order to best speed nucleation from solution, we build on the work of Page and Sear [Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 65701 (2006)] and calculate rates and free energy profiles for nucleation in the 3d Ising model in the presence of cuboidal pores. Pores of well-chosen aspect ratio can dramatically speed nucleation relative to a planar surface made of the same material, while badly-chosen pores provide no such enhancement. For a given pore, the maximum nucleation rate is achieved when one of its two horizontal dimensions attains a critical length, largely irrespective of the other dimension (provided that the latter is large enough). This observation implies that patterning a surface in a raster-like fashion is a better strategy for speeding nucleation than e.g. scoring long grooves in it.

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Lester O. Hedges, Stephen Whitelam. 2012-05-02. Patterning a surface so as to speed nucleation from solution. https://doi.org/10.1039/c2sm26038g

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