Watching Nanocrystals Grow in Liquid (4 of 5) (IMAGE)

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Watching Nanocrystals Grow in Liquid (4 of 5)

Caption

This image shows acidic mine drainage (AMD) precipitates in the Rio Tinto River, Spain. AMD precipitates are rich in iron oxyhydroxide minerals such as ferrihydrite. These minerals typically grow by oriented attachment of nanoparticles a few nanometers in diameter when particles approach one another in perfect crystallographic alignment. A detailed understanding of this process could be important for controlled synthesis of nanomaterials. This image relates to a paper that appeared in the May 25, 2012, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by D. Li at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, CA, and colleagues was titled, "Direction-Specific Interactions Control Crystal Growth by Oriented Attachment."

Credit

Photograph by Prof. Jillian Banfield, Department of Earth and Planetary Science at UC Berkeley

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