A study of the nucleation of the solution-to-solid phase transition using levitated microscopic particles

Growth behavior and photoluminescence properties of ZnO nanowires on gold nano-particle coated Si surfaces

“…3(b) in which the short ZnO nanowires were found to be ended up at the particle boundaries of the gold nanoparticle films. The argument is also consistent with the general heterogeneous nucleation theory [20,21], in which the potential nucleation sites are considered to be non-equilibrium defects such as excess vacancies, dislocations or grain boundaries. The existence of the particle boundaries would increase the free energy of the materials.…”

Heterogeneous nucleation of a common atmospheric aerosol: Ammonium sulfate

“…Early studies on heterogeneous nucleation were predominately based on bulk measurements of various alkali halides crystallizing onto mica substrates [Upreti and Walton, 1966;Newkirk and Turnbull, 1955]. Most pertinent to the work presented here are the studies of heterogeneous nucleation in suspended ternary solution droplets containing two soluble salts by Snyder and Richardson [1993], Richardson and Snyder [1994], and Tang [1997]. For NaC1-KC1, CsC1-KC1 and NaNO3-Na2SO4 solutions, a decrease in the maximum supersaturations were seen in the presence of a solid surface whereas with KF-KC1 no effect was seen [Richardson and Snyder, 1994].…”

Homogeneous nucleation of supersaturated KCl-solutions from single levitated microdroplets

“…3 It is known that homogeneous nucleation, i.e. the spontaneous formation of condensation nuclei in the bulk, from supersaturated solution droplets [4][5][6] or supercooled liquid droplets [7][8][9][10] can occur in the atmosphere. Moreover, heterogeneous nucleation may occur in metastable liquid solution droplets.…”

“…18,19 Experiments on single aerosol particles in a controlled atmospheric environment favor the use of aerosol traps, where single micron sized particles are stored in a stable optical or electrical potential cavity, yielding various physical and chemical properties. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] In particular, thermodynamic, kinetic, and optical properties of electrolyte solutions at concentrations far beyond the saturation point can be advantageously investigated in such laboratory experiments. This can be accomplished by continuously monitoring changes in particle size and weight via Mie scattering patterns of the suspended solution droplet, which may either undergo growth or evaporation in a humidity controlled atmosphere, providing specific information in a wide concentration regime.…”