Fondant under the magnifying glass

New insights into the properties of sweet coating: The results could be used to optimize the industrial production process in the future

04-Sep-2023 - For many, the german sweet "Amerikaner" - a pastry with a sweet, whitish coating - is a childhood memory at the bakery. But there's a lot of physics and chemistry in the frosting. A team led by Thomas Vilgis at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, together with colleagues from the ...

Revolutionary images of the birth of crystals

A team from the UNIGE has succeeded in visualizing crystal nucleation - the stage that precedes crystallization - that was invisible until now

26-Apr-2022 - At the interface between chemistry and physics, the process of crystallization is omnipresent in nature and industry. It is the basis for the formation of snowflakes but also of certain active ingredients used in pharmacology. For the phenomenon to occur for a given substance, it must first go ...

Nanometre gaps can crystallise liquids

X-ray examination shows surprising coexistence of liquid and crystalline form

14-May-2019 - Very narrow gaps make liquids crystallise partially. X-ray investigations at DESY show that in gaps just a few molecule diameters wide both, liquid and crystal properties of a material can exist at the same time. The observation of this coexistence is important for all liquids in very small ...

Watching two-dimensional materials grow

30-Aug-2018 - Atomically thin crystals will play an ever greater role in future – but how can their crystallisation process be controlled? A new method is now opening up new possibilities. They are among the thinnest structures on earth: “two dimensional materials” are crystals which consist of only one or a ...

A new method to detect nucleation

27-Jul-2018 - As a solution evaporates, the dissolved chemicals concentrate until they begin forming a crystal through a process called nucleation. Industries that use small crystals in pharmaceuticals, food and microelectronics are seeking to understanding this nucleation event. Scientists studying nucleation ...

How order first appears in liquid crystals

24-May-2018 - Liquid crystals undergo a peculiar type of phase change. At a certain temperature, their cigar-shaped molecules go from a disordered jumble to a more orderly arrangement in which they all point more or less in the same direction. LCD televisions take advantage of that phase change to project ...

Faster characterization of organic salts

27-Mar-2018 - UZH researchers have developed a novel method that speeds up the process of determining crystal structures of organic salts and significantly reduces the effort required to do so. As about 40 percent of all active pharmaceutical ingredients are salts, this new crystallographic method is set to ...

A crystal method

Unlocking another piece of the puzzle that is crystal growth

02-Feb-2018 - From Mother Nature to our must-have devices, we're surrounded by crystals. Those courtesy of the former, such as ice and snow, can form spontaneously and symmetrically. But the silicon-based or gallium nitride crystals found in LEDs and other electronics require a bit of coaxing to attain their ...

New insights into nanocrystal growth in liquid

18-Sep-2017 - Many seashells, minerals, and semiconductor nanomaterials are made up of smaller crystals, which are assembled together like the pieces of a puzzle. Now, researchers have measured the forces that cause the crystals to assemble, revealing an orchestra of competing factors that researchers might be ...

Forces that align crystals and help them snap together measured

03-May-2017 - Like two magnets being pulled toward each other, tiny crystals twist, align and slam into each other, but due to an altogether different force. For the first time, researchers have measured the force that draws them together and visualized how they swivel and align. Called van der Waals forces, ...