Crystal growth attachment methods

In the 1930s, Chamot and Mason defined the state of chemical microscopy (6) by detailing their work on the physical methods and chemical analysis involved with chemical microscopy. In the U.K. in 1954, Welch described a simple microscope attachment for the observation of high-temperature phenomena (7). The small, electrically heated thermocouple could hold a microscopic sample for single-crystal growth assays, melting-point determinations, and glass devitrification studies. 

The methods of specimen preparation for optical microscopy are various. In fundamental polymer studies, thin films of polymers can be crystallized between a slide and cover slip. In an apparatus such as a hot stage attached to a microscope, the crystallization process can be followed as it occurs. However, two features must be taken into account, firstly that in specimens where large spherulites form, their centres are confined to a narrow plane and are not distributed in depth as they would in a bulk specimen. Also, nucleation of crystal growth may be enhanced on the surface of the slide and cover slip, and transcrystalline layers, rather than the spherulitic structure of the bulk material, may form. 

Growth Rate for Inclination-Dependent Interface Velocity. For a crystalline particle growing from a supersaturated solution, the surface velocity often depends on atomic attachment kinetics. Attachment kinetics depends on local surface structure, which in turn depends on the surface inclination, n, with respect to the crystal frame. In limiting cases, surface velocity is a function only of inclination the interfacial speed in the direction of n is given by v(h). The main aspects of a method for calculating the growth shapes for such cases when v(h) is known is described briefly in this section. 

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