Nucleation in a Potts lattice gas model of crystallization from solution

Nucleation from solution is important in many pharmaceutical crystallization, biomineralization, material synthesis, and self-assembly processes. Simulation methodology has progressed rapidly for studies of nucleation in pure component and implicit solvent systems; however little progress has been made in the simulation of explicit solvent systems. The impasse stems from the inability of rare events simulation methodology to be combined with simulation techniques which maintain a constant chemical potential driving force (supersaturation) for nucleation. We present a Potts lattice gas (PLG) to aid in the development of new simulation strategies for nucleation from solution. The PLG captures common crystallization phase diagram features such as a eutectic point and solute/solvent melting points. Simulations of the PLG below the bulk solute melting temperature reveal a competition between amorphous and crystalline nuclei. As the temperature is increased toward the bulk melting temperature, the nucleation pathway changes from a one step crystalline nucleation pathway to a two step pathway, where an amorphous nucleus forms and then crystallizes. We explain these results in terms of classical nucleation theory with different size-dependant chemical potentials for the amorphous and crystalline nucleation pathways. The two step pathway may be particularly important when crystallization is favored only at postcritical sizes.