Nontraditional models of Ostwald ripening on solid surfaces: from physics to biology

Abstract

We present Monte Carlo simulations of Ostwald ripening of (i) submonolayer islands on a heterogeneous surface, (ii) lipid bilayer islands, and (iii) 3D supported nm crystallites on a uniform surface. With increasing dimension of the model (from (i) to (iii)), the growth of the average size characterizing phase separation is found to become slower. In particular, the growth law exponent falls from the classical Lifshitz–Slyozov value, x=1/3, obtained for the mono- and bilayer islands, to much lower values, x=0.125±0.015, associated with the nm crystallites. The latter finding is in good agreement with the results of numerous experimental studies of sintering of supported nm crystallites employed in heterogeneous catalysis.