spontaneous nucleation

[spän′tā·nē·əs ‚nü·klē′ā·shən]

(meteorology)

The nucleation of a phase change of a substance without the benefit of any seeding nuclei within or otherwise in contact with that substance; examples of such systems are a pure vapor condensing to its pure liquid state, a pure liquid freezing to its pure solid state, and a pure solution crystallizing to yield pure solute crystals.

Mentioned in ?

Crystallization

References in periodicals archive ?

In many of the 452 trials, protein crystals grew much earlier, at lower levels of supersaturation, on the minerals than they did when they crystallized by spontaneous nucleation.

Minerals for growth: mineral surfaces turn out to be useful platforms for growing protein crystals

Interaction between the polymer and the surface of the nucleating agent is essential in reducing the interfa-cial free energy barrier for spontaneous nucleation and growth, increasing crystallization rate and inducing crystallization at a lower degree of supercooling, i.

The effect of a sodium octacosanoate-based nucleating agent on the crystallization of thermoplastic polyurethanes

The uniformity of the shear-induced layer indicates spontaneous nucleation at the moment of shear, thereby eliciting synchronized growth.