Rough–flat–rough transition of crystal surfaces

Influence of roughening transition on magnetic ordering

In the literature of magnetic phase transitions, in addition to a critical point, the existence of another special point has been discussed. This is related to the broadening of the interface between two different ordering phases and is referred to as the point of roughening transition. While the equilibrium properties associated with this transition are well understood, the influence of this on nonequilibrium dynamics still needs to be investigated. In this paper we present comprehensive results, from Monte Carlo simulations, on coarsening dynamics in a system, over a wide range of temperature, in space dimension d=3, for which there exists a roughening transition at a nonzero temperature T_{R}. An advanced analysis of the simulation data, on structure, growth, and aging, shows that the onset of unexpected glasslike slow dynamics in this system, that has received attention in recent times, for quenches to zero temperature, actually occurs at this transition point. This implies that the structure and aging depend upon the final temperature, when the latter lies between 0 and T_{R}. This is a very interesting exception to universality in coarsening dynamics. The results also demonstrate an important structure-dynamics connection in the phase-ordering dynamics. We compare the key results with those from d=2, for which there exists no nonzero roughening transition temperature. The absence of the above-mentioned anomalous features in the latter dimension places our conjecture on the role of the roughening transition on a firmer footing.

Unusual Surface Texture, Dimensions and Morphology Variations of Chiral and Single Crystals*

We demonstrate here a unique metallo-organic material where the appearance and the internal crystal structure are in contradiction. The egg-shaped (ovoid) crystals have a brain-like texture. Although these micro-sized crystals are monodispersed; like fingerprints their grainy surfaces are never exactly alike. Remarkably, our X-ray and electron diffraction studies unexpectedly revealed that these structures are single-crystals comprising a continuous coordination network of two differently shaped homochiral channels. By using the same building blocks under different reaction conditions, a rare series of crystals have been obtained that are uniquely rounded in their shape. In stark contrast to the brain-like crystals, these isostructural and monodispersed crystals have a comparatively smooth appearance. The sizes of these crystals vary by several orders of magnitude.

Factors Controlling Persistent Needle Crystal Growth: The Importance of Dominant One-Dimensional Secondary Bonding, Stacked Structures, and van der Waals Contact

Needle crystals can cause filtering and handling problems in industrial settings, and the factors leading to a needle crystal morphology have been investigated. The crystal growth of the amide and methyl, ethyl, isopropyl, and t-butyl esters of diflunisal have been examined, and needle growth has been observed for all except the t-butyl ester. Their crystal structures show that the t-butyl ester is the only structure that does not contain molecular stacking. A second polymorph of a persistent needle forming phenylsulfonamide with a block like habit has been isolated. The structure analysis has been extended to known needle forming systems from the literature. The intermolecular interactions in needle forming structures have been analyzed using the PIXEL program, and the properties driving needle crystal growth were found to include a 1D motif with interaction energy greater than -30 kJ/mol, at least 50% vdW contact between the motif neighbors, and a filled unit cell which is a monolayer. Crystal structures are classified into persistent and controllable needle formers. Needle growth in the latter class can be controlled by choice of solvent. The factors shown here to be drivers of needle growth will help in the design of processes for the production of less problematic crystal products.

Surface roughening, premelting and melting of monolayer and bilayer crystals

Dimensionality often strongly affects material properties and phase transition behaviors, but its effects on crystal surfaces, such as roughening and premelting, have been poorly studied. Our simulation revealed that these surface behaviors are distinct in monolayer and multilayer Lennard-Jones (LJ) crystals. Solid surfaces fluctuate as capillary waves during the roughening process, but complete roughening is preempted by premelting. As the melting temperature is approached, the thickness of the premelted liquid layer approaches a constant (i.e., blocked premelting) for monolayer crystals, but diverges as a power law (i.e., complete premelting) for bilayer and trilayer crystals. The surface liquids of monolayer crystals contain crystalline patches and exhibits rough liquid-vapour and liquid-crystal interfaces, in contrast to the normal surface liquids of bilayer and trilayer crystals. Monolayer crystals melt heterogeneously from the surface without forming a hexatic phase and produce many vacancies.

Shock growth of ice crystal near equilibrium melting pressure under dynamic compression

Crystal growth and morphological transitions are crucial for fundamental science and wide applications. Nevertheless, their mechanisms under local nonequilibrium growth condition are unclear due to severe interference of thermal and mass transports on the interplay between thermodynamic driving force and interface kinetics. Here, we reveal the origin of the pressure-induced 2D shock growth of ice VI crystal by using dynamic compression, in which a dimensional transition from 3D to 2D is observed. Unlike generally expected, the 2D shock growth occurs from 3D crystal edges rather than from its corners upon fast compression, even near equilibrium growth condition. This is due to similar interface structure to the crystal edge plane facilitating the fast interface kinetics under local nonequilibrium growth.

Crystal growth is governed by an interplay between macroscopic driving force and microscopic interface kinetics at the crystal–liquid interface. Unlike the local equilibrium growth condition, the interplay becomes blurred under local nonequilibrium, which raises many questions about the nature of diverse crystal growth and morphological transitions. Here, we systematically control the growth condition from local equilibrium to local nonequilibrium by using an advanced dynamic diamond anvil cell (dDAC) and generate anomalously fast growth of ice VI phase with a morphological transition from three- to two-dimension (3D to 2D), which is called a shock crystal growth. Unlike expected, the shock growth occurs from the edges of 3D crystal along the (112) crystal plane rather than its corners, which implies that the fast compression yields effectively large overpressure at the crystal–liquid interface, manifesting the local nonequilibrium condition. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation reproduces the faster growth of the (112) plane than other planes upon applying large overpressure. Moreover, the MD study reveals that the 2D shock crystal growth originates from the similarity of the interface structure between water and the (112) crystal plane under the large overpressure. This study provides insight into crystal growth under dynamic compressions, which makes a bridge for the unknown behaviors of crystal growth between under static and dynamic pressure conditions.

Correlation between hierarchical structure of crystal networks and macroscopic performance of mesoscopic soft materials and engineering principles

The performance of soft materials is correlated with the hierarchical crystal network structure by topology, correlation length, symmetry/ordering, and strength.

Experimental modelling of single-particle dynamic processes in crystallization by controlled colloidal assembly

A comprehensive review of the experimental modeling of single particle dynamics in crystallization is presented.

Chirality changes in carbon nanotubes studied with near-field Raman spectroscopy

We report on the direct visualization of chirality changes in carbon nanotubes by mapping local changes in resonant RBM phonon frequencies with an optical resolution of 40 nm using near-field Raman spectroscopy. We observe the transition from semiconducting-to-metal and metal-to-metal chiralities at the single nanotube level. Our experimental findings, based on detecting changes in resonant RBM frequencies, are complemented by measuring changes in the G-band frequency and line shape. In addition, we observe increased Raman scattering due to local defects associated with the structural transition. From our results, we determine the spatial extent of the transition region to be Ltrans approximately 40-100 nm.

Molecular sieving using single wall carbon nanotubes

By using molecular dynamics and grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations, we find that a nanotube with a constriction results in high transport resistance to nitrogen while allowing oxygen to pass at a much higher rate even though these gases have very similar sizes and energetics. This provides an understanding of the reported high permeation rates of oxygen relative to nitrogen in nanoporous carbon membranes and a basis for designing nanotubes with constrictions using available technologies for membrane-based separations.

Dynamic pressure-induced dendritic and shock crystal growth of ice VI

Crystal growth mechanisms are crucial to understanding the complexity of crystal morphologies in nature and advanced technological materials, such as the faceting and dendrites found in snowflakes and the microstructure and associated strength properties of structural and icy planetary materials. In this article, we present observations of pressure-induced ice VI crystal growth, which have been predicted theoretically, but had never been observed experimentally to our knowledge. Under modulated pressure conditions in a dynamic-diamond anvil cell, rough single ice VI crystal initially grows into well defined octahedral crystal facets. However, as the compression rate increases, the crystal surface dramatically changes from rough to facet, and from convex to concave because of a surface instability, and thereby the growth rate suddenly increases by an order of magnitude. Depending on the compression rate, this discontinuous jump in crystal growth rate or "shock crystal growth" eventually produces 2D carpet-type fractal morphology, and moreover dendrites form under sinusoidal compression, whose crystal morphologies are remarkably similar to those predicted in theoretical simulations under a temperature gradient field. The observed strong dependence of the growth mechanism on compression rate, therefore, suggests a different approach to developing a comprehensive understanding of crystal growth dynamics.

Necklace-like Hollow Carbon Nanospheres from the Pentagon-Including Reactants: Synthesis and Electrochemical Properties

Necklace-like hollow carbon nanospheres (CNSs) have been successfully synthesized from the pentagon-including reactants, which provide an auxiliary example for the theoretical prediction that necklace-like hollow CNSs are assumed to be composed of the regular occurrence of nonhexagonal rings at the atomic level. Benefits of the as-obtained hollow CNSs also arise from the high Brunauer-Emmett-Teller value of 594.32 m(2)/g and a narrow pore distribution at 5 nm. The electrochemical hydrogen storage experiments for the as-obtained necklace-like hollow CNSs exhibit a capacity of 242 mAh/g at the current density of 200 mA/g, corresponding to a hydrogen storage of 0.89 wt %, which is higher than the previously reported electrochemical capacities for the multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). Furthermore, the as-obtained necklace-like hollow CNSs show a lithium capacity advantage compared with the carbon solid particles for application in lithium batteries. These results indicate that the necklace-like hollow CNSs provide a new candidate for the application in hydrogen storage and lithium batteries.

Atomic-Scale Deformation in N-Doped Carbon Nanotubes

We present the N-doping induced atomic-scale structural deformation in N-doped carbon nanotubes by using density functional theory calculations. For substitutional N-doped nanotube clusters, the N dopant with an excess electron lone pair exhibits the high negative charge, and the homogeneously distributed dopants enlarge the tube diameter in both zigzag and armchair cases. On the other hand, in pyridine-like N-doped ones, the concentrated N atoms result in a positively curved graphene layer and, thus, can be responsible for tube wall roughness and the formation of interlinked structures.

Defects in carbon nanotubes

Carbon nanotubes are quasi one-dimensional nanostructures with unique eletrical prroperties that make them prime candidates for molecular electronics, which is certainly a most promising direction in nanotechnology. Early theoretical works predicted that the electronic properties of "ideal" carbon nanotubes depend on their diameter and chirality. However, carbon nanotubes are probably not as perfect as they were once thought to be. Defects such as pentagons, heptagons, vacancies, or dopant are found to modify drastically the electronic properties of these nanosystems. Irradiation processes can lead to interesting, highly defective nanostructures and also to the coalescence of nanotubes within a rope. The introduction of defects in the carbon network is thus an interesting way to tailor its intrinsic properties, to create new potential nanodevices. The aim of the present Acount is to investigate theoretically the effects of different types of defects on the electronic properties of carbon nanotubes, and to propose new potential applications in nanoelectronics.

Pentaheptite modifications of the graphite sheet

Pentaheptites (three-coordinate tilings of the plane by pentagons and heptagons only) are classified under the chemically motivated restriction that all pentagons occur in isolated pairs and all heptagons have three heptagonal neighbors. They span a continuum between the two lattices exemplified by the boron nets in ThMoB4 (cmm) and YCrB4 (pgg), in analogy with the crossover from cubic-close-packed to hexagonal-close-packed packings in 3D. Symmetries realizable for these pentaheptite layers are three strip groups (periodic in one dimension), p1a1, p112, and p111, and five Fedorov groups (periodic in two dimensions), cmm, pgg, pg, p2, and p1. All can be constructed by simultaneous rotation of the central bonds of pyrene tilings of the graphite sheet. The unique lattice of cmm symmetry corresponds to the previously proposed pentaheptite carbon metal. Analogous pentagon-heptagon tilings on other surfaces including the torus, Klein bottle, and cylinder, face-regular tilings of pentagons and b-gons, and a full characterization of tilings involving isolated pairs and/or triples of pentagons are presented. The Kelvin paradigm of a continuum of structures arising from propagation of two original motifs has many potential applications in 2D and 3D.