Mechanisms of Nucleation and Growth of Nanoparticles in Solution

Cobalt Ferrite Nanoparticles Fabricated via Co-precipitation in Air: Overview of Size Control and Magnetic Properties

“…Ostwald Ripening and aggregation as well [2,[15][16][17][18]37]. Nucleation refers to the process in which materials collect in formations known as nuclei [16,18].…”

“…Nucleation refers to the process in which materials collect in formations known as nuclei [16,18]. These nuclei serve as the basis for crystal formation [2,18].…”

“…Ostwald Ripening, also known as coarsening, refers to the process in which very small particles (formed by nucleation and growth) re-dissolve and deposit themselves onto larger particles yielding an increase in the size of large particles at the expense of small particles in solution [17][18]37]. This occurs because small particles are more soluble and they collectively have a greater surface area than large particles and therefore a greater surface energy.…”

“…This occurs because small particles are more soluble and they collectively have a greater surface area than large particles and therefore a greater surface energy. Clearly, Ostwald Ripening is another process by which the system reduces its overall free energy by reducing its total surface area [17][18]. In order for co-precipitation to occur a solution needs to be brought to supersaturation, and, in this research project, this was done by setting reaction temperature to lead to super-saturation [2,16,18].…”

“…Clearly, this tends to increase average particle size [13,15,[17][18][22][23][24]. Particles in solution are affected by Brownian motion [13,15,[17][18][22][23][24]. Consequently, particle collisions result and van der waals forces between particles serve as an attractive force between the particles [13,15,[17][18][22][23][24].…”