title: Precipitation patterns with polygonal boundaries between electrolytes.
abstract: Two-dimensional Liesegang patterns formed when the boundary between electrolytes is polygonal display a variety of patterns, such as dislocations (radial alleys of gaps), branches (anastomoses) and spirals, many of which can be found in nature. Each vertex of the polygon can produce a pair of dislocation lines or branch lines. The effect caused by a vertex decreases with the number of vertices. Double-armed spirals are observed in experiments with a pentagonal boundary. Hexagons, which begin to approach smooth circular boundaries, do not give rise to dislocations, but instead yield concentric precipitation rings. A simple model of nucleation growth enables us to simulate dislocations and spirals consistent with those seen in our experiments.
authors.affiliation: College of Chemical Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221008, China.
authors.forename: Changwei
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Qingyu
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Jingxuan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Irving R
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: Epstein