Crystal growth kinetics as an architectural constraint on the evolution of molluscan shells

Molluscan shells are a classic model system to study formation–structure–function relationships in biological materials and the process of biomineralized tissue morphogenesis. Typically, each shell consists of a number of highly mineralized ultrastructures, each characterized by a specific 3D mineral–organic architecture. Surprisingly, in some cases, despite the lack of a mutual biochemical toolkit for biomineralization or evidence of homology, shells from different independently evolved species contain similar ultrastructural motifs. In the present study, using a recently developed physical framework, which is based on an analogy to the process of directional solidification and simulated by phase-field modeling, we compare the process of ultrastructural morphogenesis of shells from 3 major molluscan classes: A bivalve Unio pictorum, a cephalopod Nautilus pompilius, and a gastropod Haliotis asinina. We demonstrate that the fabrication of these tissues is guided by the organisms by regulating the chemical and physical boundary conditions that control the growth kinetics of the mineral phase. This biomineralization concept is postulated to act as an architectural constraint on the evolution of molluscan shells by defining a morphospace of possible shell ultrastructures that is bounded by the thermodynamics and kinetics of crystal growth.

Direct observation of crystallization and melting with colloids

We study the kinetics of crystal growth and melting of two types of colloidal crystals: body-centered cubic (BCC) crystals and face-centered cubic (FCC) crystals. A dielectrophoretic “electric bottle” confines colloids, enabling precise control of the motion of the interface. We track the particle motion, and by introducing a structural order parameter, we measure the jump frequencies of particles to and from the crystal and determine from these the free-energy difference between the phases and the interface mobility. We find that the interface is rough in both BCC and FCC cases. Moreover, the jump frequencies correspond to those expected from the random walk of the particles, which translates to collision-limited growth in metallic systems. The mobility of the BCC interface is greater than that of the FCC interface. In addition, contrary to the prediction of some early computer simulations, we show that there is no significant asymmetry between the mobilities for crystallization and melting.

Influence of solvent additive on the chemical and electronic environment of wide bandgap perovskite thin films

We provide in-depth insight into the role of 1,8-diiodooctane (DIO) as a solvent additive in wide bandgap CH3NH3PbBr3 (MAPbBr3) films which results in altering the kinetics of crystal growth.

Discussion on Modeling Capability for Macrosegregation

Macrosegregation originates from the solute partitioning at the liquid-solid interface and the relative motion between liquid and solid phases during solidification of metal alloys. A suitable macrosegregation model should incorporate solidification thermodynamics, crystal growth kinetics, multiphase computational fluid dynamics, and even thermal-structural mechanics. No current model includes all those phenomena, hence leading to assumptions having to be made. This paper discusses some modeling assumptions regarding the treatment of (1) diffusion kinetics of crystal growth, (2) crystal dendritic morphology and (3) solidification shrinkage. Theoretical analyses based on test calculations were made. We find that some previous models, which over-simplified some of the aspects mentioned above for the purpose of computational efficiency, can only be applied to study macrosegregation qualitatively. They lead to significant error estimations of macrosegregation. When the quantitative accuracy for macrosegregation is of primary importance, the multiphase-based models with an appropriate treatment of these aspects, despite the sophisticated computational requirements, are recommended.