Nucleation and Growth in Nanosystems: Some New Concepts

Abstract

Review covers some new concepts in theory and modelling of the initial stages of solid-state reactions in thin films, multilayers, nanoparticles, and bulk nanocrystalline materials. The following topics are included: possibility of oscillatory ordering and nucleation in the sharp concentration gradient; criteria of suppression/growth of stable and metastable phases at the nucleation stage; possible nucleation modes in sharp concentration gradient and their competition; competitive nucleation and decomposition in small volumes; criteria of unambiguous choosing the parameters of discontinuous precipitation based on the balance and maximum production of the entropy; formation of nanostructure under uniaxial compression of single-crystalline alloy.