Precipitation of solid phases in aqueous solutions which deviate from thermodynamic equilibrium is an ubiquitous kinetic phenomena. It may occur in soft chemistry experiments where the concentration of a solute in the aqueous solution, is prepared in excess with respect to the solubility of a desired compound (Adamson 1960; Markov 1995). As first recognized by Gibbs, the solid phase first appears as small nuclei which subsequently grow. The understanding and control of these nucleation and growth processes is of prime importance in modern technology which aims at producing artificial nano-size objects, such as ultra-thin films, nano-dots, nano-clusters,...
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