The two-step mechanism of nucleation of crystals in solution

The formation of crystalline nanoparticles starts with nucleation and control of nucleation is crucial for the control of the number, size, perfection, polymorph modification and other characteristics of particles. Recently, there have been significant advances in the understanding of the mechanism of nucleation of crystals in solution. The most significant of these is the two-step mechanism of nucleation, according to which the crystalline nucleus appears inside pre-existing metastable clusters of size several hundred nanometers, which consist of dense liquid and are suspended in the solution. While initially proposed for protein crystals, the applicability of this mechanism has been demonstrated for…