NaCl crystallization in apolar nanometer-sized confinement studied by atomistic simulations

Capturing the Moment of Emergence of Crystal Nucleus from Disorder

Crystallization is the process of atoms or molecules forming an organized solid via nucleation and growth. Being intrinsically stochastic, the research at an atomistic level has been a huge experimental challenge. We report herein in situ detection of a crystal nucleus forming during nucleation/growth of a NaCl nanocrystal, as video recorded in the interior of a vibrating conical carbon nanotube at 20-40 ms frame^-1 with localization precision of <0.1 nm. We saw NaCl units assembled to form a cluster fluctuating between featureless and semiordered states, which suddenly formed a crystal. Subsequent crystal growth at 298 K and shrinkage at 473 K took place also in a stochastic manner. Productive contributions of the graphitic surface and its mechanical vibration have been experimentally indicated.

Microscopic modeling of confined crystal growth and dissolution

We extend the (1+1)-dimensional fluid solid-on-solid (SOS) model to include a confining flat surface opposite to the SOS surface subject to a constant load. This load is balanced by a repulsive surface-surface interaction given by an ansatz which agrees with known analytical solutions in the limit of two separated flat surfaces. Mechanical equilibrium is imposed at all times by repositioning the confining surface. By the use of kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) we calculate how the equilibrium concentration (deposition rate) depends on the applied load, and find it to reproduce analytical thermodynamics independent of the parameters of the interaction ansatz. We also study the dependency between the surface roughness and the saturation level as we vary the surface tension, and expand on previous analyses of the asymmetry between growth and dissolution by parametrizing the linear growth rate constant for growth and dissolution separately. We find the presence of a confining surface to affect the speed of growth and dissolution equally.