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Durelle M, Charton S, Gobeaux F, Chevallard C, Belloni L, Testard F, Trépout S, Carriere D. Coexistence of Transient Liquid Droplets and Amorphous Solid Particles in Nonclassical Crystallization of Cerium Oxalate. J Phys Chem Lett 2022; 13:8502-8508. [PMID: 36066503 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c01829] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Crystallization from solution often occurs via "nonclassical" routes; that is, it involves transient, non-crystalline states like reactant-rich liquid droplets and amorphous particles. However, in mineral crystals, the well-defined thermodynamic character of liquid droplets and whether they convert─or not─into amorphous phases have remained unassessed. Here, by combining cryo-transmission electron microscopy and X-ray scattering down to a 250 ms reaction time, we unveil that crystallization of cerium oxalate involves a metastable chemical equilibrium between transient liquid droplets and solid amorphous particles: contrary to the usual expectation, reactant-rich droplets do not evolve into amorphous solids. Instead, at concentrations above 2.5 to 10 mmol L-1, both amorphous and reactant-rich liquid phases coexist for several tens of seconds and their molar fractions remain constant and follow the lever rule in a multicomponent phase diagram. Such a metastable chemical equilibrium between solid and liquid precursors has been so far overlooked in multistep nucleation theories and highlights the interest of rationalizing phase transformations using multicomponent phase diagrams not only when designing and recycling rare earths materials but also more generally when describing nonclassical crystallization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maxime Durelle
- CEA, DES, ISEC, DMRC, Univ. Montpellier, 30207 Marcoule, France
- Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, CEA, NIMBE, LIONS, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Sophie Charton
- CEA, DES, ISEC, DMRC, Univ. Montpellier, 30207 Marcoule, France
| | - Frédéric Gobeaux
- Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, CEA, NIMBE, LIONS, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Corinne Chevallard
- Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, CEA, NIMBE, LIONS, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Luc Belloni
- Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, CEA, NIMBE, LIONS, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Fabienne Testard
- Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, CEA, NIMBE, LIONS, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Sylvain Trépout
- Institut Curie, Université PSL, CNRS UMS2016, Inserm US43, Université Paris-Saclay, Multimodal Imaging Center, 91400 Orsay, France
| | - David Carriere
- Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, CEA, NIMBE, LIONS, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
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