2016/09/18 by Maria Koifman Khristosov, Lee Kabalah-Amitai, Khristosov, Maria Koifman +7
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Calcium Carbonate Crystallization and Inhibition #Crystallization and Solubility Studies #FOS: Physical sciences #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #nanoparticles nucleation surface interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1609.05461
ACS Nano, 2014
arxiv created 2016/09/18 · openalex publication_date 2016/09/18 · arxiv updated 2016/09/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Crystals in nature often demonstrate curved morphologies rather than classical faceted surfaces. Inspired by biogenic curved single crystals, we demonstrate that gold single crystals exhibiting curved surfaces can be grown with no need of any fabrication steps. These single crystals grow from the confined volume of a droplet of a eutectic composition melt which forms via the dewetting of nanometric thin films. We can control their curvature by controlling the environment in which the process is carried out, including several parameters, such as the contact angle and the curvature of the drops by changing the surface tension of the liquid drop during crystal growth. Here we present an energetic model that explains this phenomenon and predicts why and under what conditions crystals will be forced to grow with the curvature of the micro droplet even though the energetic state of a curved single crystal is very high.