Alternating morphology transitions in crystallization of NH4Cl on agar plates.
Two types of alternating morphology transitions have been observed in crystallization of NH4Cl on agar plates. One is the alternating morphology transitions between dense branching morphology and sparse branching morphology, and the other is the alternating morphology transitions between dense branching morphology and zigzag branching morphology. The appearance of them is found to depend on the mass proportion of agar to NH4Cl in the initial solution and the relative humidity. It is suggested that both the two alternating morphology transitions result from the oscillation of solute concentration in front of the growing interface caused by the competition of crystal growth and solute transfer at a moderate mass proportion. Which one of them occurs depends on the relative humidity, which controls the supersaturation.
Department of Physics, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China.
Ya-Fang
YF
Tu
Rong-Bin
RB
Wei
Jian-Ping
JP
Sang
Sheng-You
SY
Huang
Xian-Wu
XW
Zou