Formation of Precipitation Ellipsoidal Disks and Spheres in the Wake of a Planar Diffusion Front.

Abstract

Pattern formation is one of the examples of self-organization. In the generation of patterns, the coupling between the mass transport of the chemical species and their chemical reactions plays an important role. Periodic precipitation (Liesegang phenomenon) is a type of pattern formation in which layered precipitation structures form in the wake of the diffusion front. Here, we show a new type of precipitation pattern formation in zeolitic imidazolate framework-67 in a solid hydrogel column in a test tube manifested in the generation of precipitation ellipsoidal disks and spheres in the wake of the planar diffusion front of the outer electrolyte (2-methylimidazole). To increase the probability of the emergence of ellipsoidal disks and spheres, the surfaces of the borosilicate test tubes were chemically treated and functionalized. To support the experimental findings, we developed a reaction-diffusion model that qualitatively describes the formation of precipitate ellipsoidal disks and spheres in a test tube.