General Strategy for Fine Manipulating Crystal Growthof Water-Soluble Salts.

Inthis work, a general strategy was proposed for fine manipulatingintrinsic growth of water-soluble salts belonging to different crystalsystems. Various hollow microsphere hierarchical architectures assembledwith hopperlike single crystal blocks of cubic KBr, orthorhombic (NH4)2SO4, or hexagonal Na2SO3have been designed and prepared via microemulsions. Intrinsicgrowth manipulations of different water-soluble salts has been successfullyachieved by preventing growth of the outside surface of each singlecrystal block via a diffusion-limit effect of the interfaces betweenthe oil phase and aqueous droplets. As a result, hopperlike singlecrystals of water-soluble salts belonging to different crystal systemswere formed. Furthermore, octahedral NaCl hopperlike single crystal,rather than their typical cubic shape, has also been fabricated bymanipulating their growth rates along different lattice directionsin combination with urea as additives. The large amount of fine manipulationof intrinsic growth of water-soluble salts will provide us with adeep understanding of crystallography of inorganic salts, as wellas facilitate design and production of water-soluble salts architectureswith corresponding shapes, according to the different requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]