A Review of Laser-Induced Crystallization from Solution

Crystallization abounds in nature and industrial practice. A plethora of indispensable products ranging from agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals to battery materials are produced in crystalline form in industrial practice. Yet, our control over the crystallization process across scales, from molecular to macroscopic, is far from complete. This bottleneck not only hinders our ability to engineer the properties of crystalline products essential for maintaining our quality of life but also hampers progress toward a sustainable circular economy in resource recovery. In recent years, approaches leveraging light fields have emerged as promising alternatives to manipulate crystallization. In this review article, we classify laser-induced crystallization approaches where light-material interactions are utilized to influence crystallization phenomena according to proposed underlying mechanisms and experimental setups. We discuss nonphotochemical laser-induced nucleation, high-intensity laser-induced nucleation, laser trapping-induced crystallization, and indirect methods in detail. Throughout the review, we highlight connections among these separately evolving subfields to encourage the interdisciplinary exchange of ideas.

A Metastable Amorphous Intermediate Is Responsible for Laser-Induced Nucleation of Glycine

Laser-induced crystal nucleation through optical tweezing, and in particular polymorph selection through laser polarization, promises unprecedented control over crystallization. However, in the absence of a nearby liquid-liquid critical point or miscibility gap, the origin of the required mesoscale clusters remains unclear. A number of recent studies of so-called nonclassical nucleation have suggested the presence of large amorphous clusters. Here, we show that supersaturated aqueous glycine solutions form metastable intermediate particles that are off the direct path to crystal nucleation. Laser-induced crystal nucleation only occurs when the laser "activates" one of these particles. In situ low-frequency Raman spectroscopy is used to demonstrate their amorphous or partially ordered character and transformation to various crystal polymorphs. The requirement for solution aging in many previously reported laser-induced crystal nucleation experiments strongly suggests that the presence of amorphous intermediates is a general requirement.

Morphology control of laser-induced dandelion-like crystals of sodium acetate through the addition of acidic polymers

Crystal growth speeds, crystal sizes and the morphology of sodium acetate (CH3COONa) crystals in the presence of polymaleic acid and polyacrylic acid with different concentrations were investigated in supersaturated solutions of sodium acetate. The technique of non-photochemical laser-induced nucleation (NPLIN) was used to produce initial crystallites of anhydrous CH3COONa. The anhydrous CH3COONa crystal growth in solution after laser irradiation resembled the formation of dandelion seed heads. Even though NPLIN could offer temporal–spatial control of crystal nucleation without the addition of acidic polymers, the crystal growth rates were heterogeneous for crystallites along the laser pathway, which led to irregular crystalline sizes and morphologies. Here, a controllable approach from crystal nucleation to crystal growth has been designed through the addition of acidic polymers in the laser-induced growth of anhydrous CH3COONa crystals. In the presence of an acidic polymer, both the crystal growth and the morphological modification were controlled from tuft-shaped crystals to dandelion-like crystals. As bulk solid thicknesses and crystal growth speeds can be modified by different mass fractions of acidic polymer, a mathematical model was established to analyse the dynamics of crystal growth under the effect of acidic polymers. The model reproduces remarkably well the experimental trend and predicts experimental results. The changes in supersaturation and the number of nuclei through the addition of acidic polymers were analysed to investigate the underlying mechanism of morphological difference.

Using optical tweezing to control phase separation and nucleation near a liquid-liquid critical point

About 20 years ago, it was shown that lasers can nucleate crystals in super-saturated solutions and might even be able to select the polymorph that crystallises. However, no theoretical model was found explaining the results and progress was slowed down. Here we show that laser-induced nucleation may be understood in terms of the harnessing of concentration fluctuations near a liquid-liquid critical point using optical tweezing in a process called laser-induced phase separation (LIPS) and LIPS and nucleation (LIPSaN). A theoretical model is presented based on the regular solution model with an added term representing optical tweezing while the dynamics are modelled using a Kramers diffusion equation, and the roles of heat diffusion and thermophoresis are evaluated. LIPS and LIPSaN experiments were carried out on a range of liquid mixtures and the results compared to theory.

Effects of nanoparticle heating on the structure of a concentrated aqueous salt solution

The effects of a rapidly heated nanoparticle on the structure of a concentrated aqueous salt solution are studied using molecular dynamics simulations. A diamond-like nanoparticle of radius 20 Å is immersed in a sodium-chloride solution at 20% above the experimental saturation concentration and equilibrated at T = 293 K and P = 1 atm. The nanoparticle is then rapidly heated to several thousand degrees Kelvin, and the system is held under isobaric-isoenthalpic conditions. It is observed that after 2-3 ns, the salt ions are depleted far more than water molecules from a proximal zone 15-25 Å from the nanoparticle surface. This leads to a transient reduction in molality in the proximal zone and an increase in ion clustering in the distal zone. At longer times, ions begin to diffuse back into the proximal zone. It is speculated that the formation of proximal and distal zones, and the increase in ion clustering, plays a role in the mechanism of nonphotochemical laser-induced nucleation.

Supersaturation dependence of glycine polymorphism using laser-induced nucleation, sonocrystallization and nucleation by mechanical shock

Nucleation of glycine by laser, ultrasound and mechanical shock exhibits a transition from the alpha to the gamma polymorph with increasing supersaturation.