Examining crystal growth and breakdown at the nanoscale

The reactivity of the inorganic materials that make up our planet is governed by processes occurring at the interface between crystals and the local environment. At the Earth’s surface, interfaces between crystals and aqueous solutions are responsible for many natural processes, including element mobilisation to form ore deposits. These interfaces are also critical in engineering problems such as the remediation of environmental contamination by pollutants and pipe scale formation. To be able to probe crystal interfaces we need a technique that can monitor nanoscale changes of the surface topography in situ during the interaction of crystals with aqueous solutions. Thus, atomic force microscopy (AFM) is the optimal tool for this task. In this talk, I will discuss how AFM can be used to monitor inorganic crystal dissolution and growth. In addition, I will examine how AFM can act as an in situ probe of the interfacial feedbacks between dissolution and the nucleation and growth of new materials that remove contaminants such as heavy metals from aqueous solutions.