Nucleation: Current Understanding Approaching 150 Years After Gibbs

Nucleation is a ubiquitous phenomenon in technology and the natural world. It plays key roles in geology, across chemistry, physics, and biology and on to industrial processes like the setting of concrete, cryopreservation and the manufacture of drugs. Identification of the mechanisms by which crystal nucleation occurs therefore promises a new physical understanding of this fundamental process and the ability to control crystallization in multiple environments. This Special Issue will focus on advances and challenges in developing a fundamental, microscopically based understanding of crystal nucleation mechanisms. Despite having been studied for over a century, it is only recently that developments in experimental, theoretical and computational techniques have given the opportunity to characterize the molecular-scale processes that underlie crystal nucleation.

Guest Editors: Pablo Debenedetti, Hajime Tanaka, Fiona Meldrum, and Yi-Yeoun Kim, with JCP Editors Angelos Michaelides and Carlos Vega.