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Universality of persistence exponents in two-dimensional Ostwald ripening
Jordi Soriano1, Ido Braslavsky, Di Xu
1Departament d'ECM, Facultat de Física, Universitat de Barcelona, Diagonal 647, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain.
Physical Review Letters
|April 7, 2010
Summary
This study measured persistence exponents for Ostwald ripening in two dimensions. Results show universality across different systems, with exponents matching theoretical predictions for small domain fractions.
Area of Science:
- Physics
- Materials Science
- Physical Chemistry
Background:
- Ostwald ripening is a key process in materials science involving the coarsening of domains.
- Persistence exponents describe the temporal behavior of systems near critical points.
- Understanding these exponents is crucial for predicting material evolution.
Purpose of the Study:
- To measure persistence exponents (theta(phi)) during Ostwald ripening in two dimensions.
- To investigate the dependence of these exponents on the area fraction (phi) of coarsening domains.
- To provide experimental evidence for the universality of Ostwald ripening exponents.
Main Methods:
- Experimental measurement of persistence exponents (theta(phi)) in two distinct systems: succinonitrile and brine.
- Quenching these systems into their liquid-solid coexistence region.
- Analyzing the data as a function of the area fraction (phi) of coarsening domains.
Main Results:
- The measured theta(phi) values in succinonitrile and brine showed excellent agreement, supporting universality.
- For small area fractions (phi), theta(phi) was found to be approximately 0.39phi.
- These findings align with theoretical models that do not assume correlations between domains.
Conclusions:
- The study provides the first experimental measurement of persistence exponents for phase transitions with a conserved order parameter.
- The results strongly support the universality of the one-parameter family of exponents in Ostwald ripening.
- The observed behavior for small area fractions validates theoretical predictions.
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