How the intermediate stage of a phase transition process transforms to the concluding stage of Ostwald ripening

Abstract

Abstract A theoretical description of the intermediate stage of the phase transformation process, passing into the Ostwald ripening stage, is presented. First, we consider the intermediate stage of nucleation and growth of crystals in the supercooled melts or supersaturated solutions with allowance for fluctuations in their growth rates. The evolutionary behavior of the particle-size distribution function and the metastability degree is described analytically for the Meirs kinetic mechanism. The asymptotic solution for the “tail” of the particle-size distribution function is deduced in the form of the power-dependent function. This distribution function is used as the initial condition for the concluding stage where Ostwald ripening occurs. On this basis, the concluding stage of Ostwald ripening is analytically described. Namely, the maximum of the distribution function is lower and shifted to the left in comparison with the Lifshitz-Slyozov (LS) asymptotic solution. In addition, the distribution function obtained has a “tail” on the right of the LS blocking point. The theory is in good agreement with experimental data.