Modelling non-classical mechanisms of crystal nucleation and growth
Dr David Quigley (Department of Physics, University of Warwick)
Crystal growth is an important topic in materials science, chemical manufacturing, biology and even medicine. Much of our molecular scale understanding of crystal growth in anchored in classical nucleation theory. In this simple picture, solid clusters spontaneously shrink and grow until a single crystallite reaches a critical radius, and is subsequently able to reach macroscopic size. Despite the successes of this theory, an increasingly large body of evidence suggests that nature can exploit non-classical pathways to control crystallisation in ways that cannot be achieved synthetically.
This talk will discuss a number of ways in which molecular simulation can improve our understanding of non-classical crystal growth. In particular, methods for overcoming the timescale limitations of molecular dynamics will be discussed, illustrated with studies of ice nucleation, and various examples from biomineralisation - the mechanism by which nature manufactures shells, teeth and bone.