Assessing an aqueous flow cell designed for in situ crystal growth under X-ray nanotomography and effects of radiolysis products.

ABSTRACT: Nucleation and growth of minerals has broad implications in the geological, environmental and materials sciences. Recent developments in fast X-ray nanotomography have enabled imaging of crystal growth in solutions in situ with a resolution of tens of nanometres, far surpassing optical microscopy. Here, a low-cost, custom-designed aqueous flow cell dedicated to the study of heterogeneous nucleation and growth of minerals in aqueous environments is shown. To gauge the effects of radiation damage from the imaging process on growth reactions, radiation-induced morphological changes of barite crystals (hundreds of nanometres to ∼1 µm) that were pre-deposited on the wall of the flow cell were investigated. Under flowing solution, minor to major crystal dissolution was observed when the tomograp

SUBMITTER: Yuan K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10161885 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature