Recent ex situ observations of crystallization in both natural and synthetic systems indicate that the classical models of nucleation and growth are inaccurate. However, in situ observations that can provide direct evidence for alternative models have been lacking due to the limited temporal and spatial resolution of experimental techniques that can observe dynamic processes in a bulk solution....

We report that an electron beam focused for high resolution imaging rapidly initiates observable crystallization of amorphous Me-Si-C films. For 200-keV electron irradiation of Nb-Si-C and Zr-Si-C films, crystallization is observed at doses of ~2.8*10 and ~4.7*10 e /nm, respectively. The crystallization process is driven by atomic displacement events, rather than heating from the electron beam ...

Stable TiO2 sols were prepared using two nonaqueous sol–gel processes with titanium n-butoxide and titanium isopropoxide, respectively. Crystallization and phase transitions of powders and thin films were studied by ex situ and in situ X-ray diffraction. For both methods, TiO2 began to crystallize around 320 C in air. Using helium instead of air during heat treatment slowed down the crystalliza...

The thermally-induced crystallization of anodically grown TiO₂ amorphous nanotubes has been studied so far under ambient pressure conditions by techniques such as differential scanning calorimetry and in situ X-ray diffraction, then looking at the overall response of several thousands of nanotubes in a carpet arrangement. Here we report a study of this phenomenon based on an in situ transmissio...

In-situ alumina-zirconia composite bodies were fabricated by heat treatment of gibbsite-zircon-kaolinite mixture at 1450℃. The current research investigated crystallization behavior and mechanical properties of the mentioned mixture in the presence of 5 wt.% MgO as an additive. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed that alumina, zirconia, and magnesium aluminosilicate were crystallized during ...

Microfluidics is a promising technology for the rapid identification of protein crystallization conditions. However, most of the existing systems utilize silicone elastomers as the chip material which, despite its many benefits, is highly permeable to water vapour. This limits the time available for protein crystallization to less than a week. Here, the use of a cyclic olefin homopolymer-based ...

Four amphiphilic peptides with designed hairpin structure were synthesized and their monolayers were employed as model systems to study biologically inspired calcium carbonate crystallization. Langmuir monolayers of hairpin peptides were investigated by surface pressure area isotherms, surface potential isotherms, Brewster angle microscopy (BAM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Fourier transf...