Crystal growth: Difference between revisions
No edit summary |
|||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
Crystal Growth is a major stage of crystallization that occurs after nucleation. It involves the addition of new atoms, ions and other materials to the crystal base to form the lattice of the crystal. | Crystal Growth is a major stage of crystallization that occurs after nucleation. It involves the addition of new atoms, ions and other materials to the crystal base to form the lattice of the crystal. | ||
==Nucleation== | ==Nucleation== | ||
Nucleation is the first stage in the crystallization process. It is a localized physical process that involves the budding of lattice points. Nucleation is a slow process because in order for it to start, the atoms or ions have to be able to become attracted to one another. Nucleation in the case of crystals occurs when there is a supersaturated system and the sites start to cluster on the nanometer scale. These sites when stable become the nuclei or the start of the crystal. The sites have a higher concentration of the solution that is being used to make the crystal, and only once they are stable will they start to be nuclei. However, if the nuclei sites are unstable, they will redissolve back into the solution to try again later. The nuclei need to be at a critical size in order for nucleation to continue over to the crystal growth stage. There are two ways that a solution can go through nucleation: homogeneous nucleation and heterogeneous nucleation. | |||
===Homogeneous Nucleation=== | |||
==Crystal Growth Techniques== | ==Crystal Growth Techniques== | ||
Revision as of 14:20, 15 April 2009
Crystal Growth is a major stage of crystallization that occurs after nucleation. It involves the addition of new atoms, ions and other materials to the crystal base to form the lattice of the crystal.
Nucleation
Nucleation is the first stage in the crystallization process. It is a localized physical process that involves the budding of lattice points. Nucleation is a slow process because in order for it to start, the atoms or ions have to be able to become attracted to one another. Nucleation in the case of crystals occurs when there is a supersaturated system and the sites start to cluster on the nanometer scale. These sites when stable become the nuclei or the start of the crystal. The sites have a higher concentration of the solution that is being used to make the crystal, and only once they are stable will they start to be nuclei. However, if the nuclei sites are unstable, they will redissolve back into the solution to try again later. The nuclei need to be at a critical size in order for nucleation to continue over to the crystal growth stage. There are two ways that a solution can go through nucleation: homogeneous nucleation and heterogeneous nucleation.