The theory describing crystallization mechanism has been going through an important development over the last years. A significant amount of experiments and simulations that can not be interpreted by the dominating ‘Classical Nucleation Theory’ brought to the rise of alternative theories and descriptions; such as the ‘two-step nucleation’ theory1 and crystallization through attachment of a wide range of species-particles.2 Spectroscopic and structural data that is able to support and develop these emerging theories is still lacking, especially in the organic field. We are challenged to monitor the variety of phases and species that are transient and elusive, in order to make the crystallization theory more complete.
References
1. Vekilov, P. G. Nucleation. Cryst. Growth Des. 2010, 10, 5007–5019.
2. De Yoreo, J. J.; Gilbert, P. U. P. a.; Sommerdijk, N. a. J. M. et al. Crystallization by particle attachment in synthetic, biogenic, and geologic environments. Science. 2015, 349, aaa6760–aaa6760.
