Ostwald Ripening of Liquid-Metal-Grown Micropattern-Confined Crystals by Solid-Phase Diffusion
crystals via Ostwald ripening, sustained by mass transport through a solid Ga phase. Three-month observations reveal that this ripening is a long-term effect that progressively diminishes over time. Pattern width and edge features are found to modify the local Ga/Au thickness, shifting phase equilibrium and thereby tuning crystal size and spatial distribution. These findings provide mechanistic insight for the precise control of crystal growth and patterning in liquid metal synthesis systems.
Authors
- Charlie Ruffman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3595-634X)
- Laetitia Bardet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0807-1765)
- Priyank V. Kumar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8203-7223)
- Lucy Johnston (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4137-4642)
- Nicola Gaston (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8049-3295)
- Kourosh Kalantar‐Zadeh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6109-132X)
Institutions
- The University of Sydney (AU)
- University of Auckland (NZ)
- Westlake University (CN)
- UNSW Sydney (AU)
- Victoria University of Wellington (NZ)
- Institute for the Future (US)
- MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology (NZ)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nano Letters
- Published
- 2026-04-13
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.6c00419
- Primary Topic
- Nanowire Synthesis and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Australian Research Council