Collective crystallization of microscopic particles in disperse solid systems

Abstract

It is shown for the case of two-phase, three-dimensional disperse systems and two-dimensional or surface disperse systems (island films) that the intermediate process between the formation of the disperse system (crystallization) and the coagulation of the microscopic crystals is a collective crystallization of the particles. An unusual feature of the mechanism for this process is that the material of the least stable disperse particles (of spinodal size) spreads out in the presence of larger particles. As a result, groups of particles of different sizes should combine, forming larger aggregations, which undergo spheroidization at high temperatures. It can be suggested that this process is fundamental to the migrational coalescence in island films, since it is accompanied by a migration of islands which have joined together.