Precipitation and Crystallization Kinetics in Silica Gardens (Note)

The front cover artwork is provided by the groups of Prof. Werner Kunz (University of Regensburg, Germany) and Prof. Juan Manuel García-Ruiz (Laboratorio de Estudios Cristalográficos, CSIC-UGR, Spain) as well as Dr. Matthias Kellermeier (BASF SE, Germany). The image shows silica gardens, a peculiar form of tubular precipitates that grow spontaneously in purely inorganic environments. In addition to their striking morphologies, these self-assembled structures sustain drastic chemical gradients that drive a cascade of coupled diffusion and precipitation processes, which were studied by complementary synchrotron-based techniques in the present work. Read the full text of the article at 10.1002/cphc.201600748.