Kinetics and mechanisms of cadmium carbonate heteroepitaxial growth at the calcite (10 (1)over-bar 4) surface

Elucidating the kinetics and mechanisms of heteroepitaxial nucleation and growth at mineral-water interfaces is essential to understanding surface reactivity in geochemical systems. In the present work, the formation of heteroepitaxial cadmium carbonate coatings at calcite-water interfaces was investigated by exposing calcite (10 (1) over bar 4)surfaces to Cd-bearing aqueous solutions. In situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) was employed as the primary technique. The AFM results indicate that the heteroepitaxial growth of cadmium carbonate proceeds via three different mechanisms depending on the initial supersaturation of the aqueous solution: advancement of existing steps, nucleation and growth of three-dimensional (3D) islands, and nucleation and spread of two-dimensional (2D) nuclei. The 3D islands and 2D nuclei exhibit different morphologies and growth kinetics. The effects of supersaturation on heteroepitaxial growth mechanisms can be interpreted in terms of the free energy barrier for nucleation. At low initial supersaturation, where 3D nucleation dominates, it is hypothesized, from the growth rate and morphology of the 3D islands observed with AFM, that the crystallization of the overgrowth follows a non-classical pathway involving the formation of a surface precursor that is not fully crystalline, whereas high supersaturation favors the formation of crystalline 2D nuclei whose morphology is based on the atomic structure of the calcite substrate. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images reveal that the atomic structure of the interface between the cadmium carbonate coating and calcite shows perfect, dislocation-free epitaxy. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.