Crystal growth rates in supercooled atomic liquid mixtures

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Physical Chemistry
• Thermodynamics

Background:

• Crystallization is key to new materials and probes glass-forming ability.
• Classical nucleation and growth theories struggle with complex solid formation, especially in binary liquid mixtures.
• Observed crystal growth regimes in mixtures challenge current understanding.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the crystallization of supercooled argon-krypton mixtures.
• To reconcile experimental crystal growth rates with existing theoretical models.
• To highlight the role of thermodynamic non-ideality in crystal growth kinetics.

Main Methods:

• Experimental studies
• Theoretical analysis
• Computer simulations

Main Results:

• Crystal growth rates in argon-krypton mixtures were measured and analyzed.
• Existing crystal growth models were reconciled by incorporating mixture non-ideality.
• Thermodynamic aspects were shown to be crucial for accurate crystal growth kinetics.

Conclusions:

• Explicitly accounting for mixture non-ideality is essential for describing crystal growth.
• This work advances the theory of crystal growth, particularly for multi-component systems.
• The findings provide a more sophisticated understanding of crystallization processes.