Using Confinement and Surface Chemistry to Control Crystallisation

This project will investigate the effects of confinement and surface topography on crystal nucleation and growth with the goal of ultimately using these effects to control crystallisation. Crystallisation in the real world often occurs within small volumes rather than bulk solution, where thus can have significant effects on crystallisation from solution, controlling polymorph and orientation, and retarding crystallisation rates by orders of magnitude. Similarly, it is anecdotally well known that surface topographical features such as sharp cracks can significantly promote nucleation. In both cases, the origins of these effects are poorly understood. This project will investigate these processes. Systematic studies will be carried out on the effects of confinement on inorganic and organic crystals using environments including controlled pores glasses and nanotubes. A wide range of techniques including solid state NMR, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray and electron tomography will be employed. Coupled with the insight provided by the modelling groups, this work deliver an enhanced understanding of how confinement affects crystallisation, which will ultimately enable us to exploit confinement in order to control crystallisation. The project will also investigate crystallisation on substrates exhibiting natural cracks, where these topographical features appear to act as effective nucleation sites. Looking at natural substrates such as feldspars and synthetic substrates including oxidised PDMS, experiments will determine the features required to induce nucleation of a wide range of compounds.