Patterning a surface so as to speed nucleation from solution

TL;DR

This study investigates how surface patterning with cuboidal pores can significantly accelerate nucleation from solution, revealing optimal pore aspect ratios and suggesting raster-like patterns are most effective.

Contribution

It extends previous work by calculating nucleation rates and free energy profiles in the 3D Ising model with patterned pores, identifying optimal pore geometries for nucleation enhancement.

Findings

Certain pore aspect ratios dramatically increase nucleation rates.

Maximum nucleation rate occurs when one horizontal dimension reaches a critical length.

Raster-like surface patterns outperform long grooves for nucleation speed.

Abstract

Motivated by the question of how to pattern a surface in order to best speed nucleation from solution, we build on the work of Page and Sear [Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 65701 (2006)] and calculate rates and free energy profiles for nucleation in the 3d Ising model in the presence of cuboidal pores. Pores of well-chosen aspect ratio can dramatically speed nucleation relative to a planar surface made of the same material, while badly-chosen pores provide no such enhancement. For a given pore, the maximum nucleation rate is achieved when one of its two horizontal dimensions attains a critical length, largely irrespective of the other dimension (provided that the latter is large enough). This observation implies that patterning a surface in a raster-like fashion is a better strategy for speeding nucleation than e.g. scoring long grooves in it.