Ostwald ripening on a composite support

Journal article, 2020

During Ostwald ripening, the growth of larger aggregates occurs at the expense of smaller ones via detachment, diffusion, and attachment of monomers. Customarily, the processes belonging to this important class are analysed and/or simulated assuming the three- or two-dimensional (3D or 2D) space to be energetically uniform. Herein, I present kinetic Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of 2D Ostwald ripening on an energetically heterogeneous composite support. In particular, the monomer binding energy on one of the support parts is considered to be larger than on the other part. Initially, monomers are distributed on the support at random. Irrespective of the value of the initial coverage, the ripening is predicted to be preferable near the boundary between the two parts of the support.