Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 111, Issue 49, Pages 17363-17367Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1409552111
Keywords
chemical gardens; pattern formation; precipitation; reaction-advection; spirals
Categories
Funding
- PRODEX (Programme de Developpement d'Experiences Scientifiques)
- Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FORECAST project)
- Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion [FIS2013-48444-C2-2-P]
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Chemical gardens are mineral aggregates that grow in three dimensions with plant-like forms and share properties with self-assembled structures like nanoscale tubes, brinicles, or chimneys at hydrothermal vents. The analysis of their shapes remains a challenge, as their growth is influenced by osmosis, buoyancy, and reaction-diffusion processes. Here we show that chemical gardens grown by injection of one reactant into the other in confined conditions feature a wealth of new patterns including spirals, flowers, and filaments. The confinement decreases the influence of buoyancy, reduces the spatial degrees of freedom, and allows analysis of the patterns by tools classically used to analyze 2D patterns. Injection moreover allows the study in controlled conditions of the effects of variable concentrations on the selected morphology. We illustrate these innovative aspects by characterizing quantitatively, with a simple geometrical model, a new class of self-similar logarithmic spirals observed in a large zone of the parameter space.
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