Amorphous precursors of crystallization during spinodal decomposition

A general Landau's free energy functional is used to study the dynamics of crystallization during liquid-solid spinodal decomposition (SD). The strong length scale selectivity imposed during the early stage of SD induces the appearance of small precursors for crystallization with icosahedral or...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Gomez, Leopoldo Raimundo, Vega, Daniel Alberto
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/67790
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/67790
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Polimeros
Phase transitions
Block copolymer
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.3
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
Descripción
Sumario:A general Landau's free energy functional is used to study the dynamics of crystallization during liquid-solid spinodal decomposition (SD). The strong length scale selectivity imposed during the early stage of SD induces the appearance of small precursors for crystallization with icosahedral order. These precursors grow in densely packed clusters of tetrahedra through the addition of new particles. As the average size of the amorphous nuclei becomes large enough to reduce geometric frustration, crystalline particles with a body-centered cubic symmetry heterogeneously nucleate on the growing clusters. The volume fraction of the crystalline phase is strongly dependent on the depth of quench. At deep quenches, the SD mechanism produces amorphous structures arranged in dense polytetrahedral aggregates. © 2011 American Physical Society.