Ostwald ripening

Ostwald ripening in palladium nanoparticles dissolved in formaldehyde at 6 (a), 24 (b), 48 (c) and 72 hours (d). The small palladium particles are being consumed as the larger ones grow bigger.[1]
Growth of bubbles in a liquid foam via Ostwald ripening.[2]

Ostwald ripening is a phenomenon observed in solid solutions and liquid sols that involves the change of an inhomogeneous structure over time, in that small crystals or sol particles first dissolve and then redeposit onto larger crystals or sol particles.[3]

Dissolution of small crystals or sol particles and the redeposition of the dissolved species on the surfaces of larger crystals or sol particles was first described by Wilhelm Ostwald in 1896.[4][5] For colloidal systems, Ostwald ripening is also found in water-in-oil emulsions, while flocculation is found in oil-in-water emulsions.[6]

  1. ^ Zhang, Zhaorui; Wang, Zhenni; He, Shengnan; Wang, Chaoqi; Jin, Mingshang; Yin, Yadong (2015). "Redox reaction induced Ostwald ripening for size- and shape-focusing of palladium nanocrystals". Chem. Sci. 6 (9): 5197–5203. doi:10.1039/C5SC01787D. PMC 5669216. PMID 29449925.Open access icon
  2. ^ Huang, Zhandong; Su, Meng; Yang, Qiang; Li, Zheng; Chen, Shuoran; Li, Yifan; Zhou, Xue; Li, Fengyu; Song, Yanlin (2017). "A general patterning approach by manipulating the evolution of two-dimensional liquid foams". Nature Communications. 8: 14110. Bibcode:2017NatCo...814110H. doi:10.1038/ncomms14110. PMC 5290267. PMID 28134337.
  3. ^ IUPAC, Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book") (1997). Online corrected version: (2006–) "Ostwald ripening". doi:10.1351/goldbook.O04348
  4. ^ Ostwald, W. (1896). Lehrbuch der Allgemeinen Chemie, vol. 2, part 1. Leipzig, Germany.
  5. ^ Ostwald, W. (1897). "Studien über die Bildung und Umwandlung fester Körper" [Studies on the formation and transformation of solid bodies] (PDF). Zeitschrift für Physikalische Chemie. 22: 289–330.
  6. ^ Hubbard, Arthur T. (2004). Encyclopedia of Surface and Colloid Science. CRC Press. p. 4230. ISBN 978-0-8247-0759-0. Retrieved 2007-11-13.