ABSTRACT

Crystal Nucleation is the primary mechanism for phase transformation from fluid to solid phases. Despite its widespread occurrence, our understanding of the mechanisms of nucleation is far from complete. In this talk, I will be discussing methods to study crystal nucleation using molecular simulations and the application of these techniques to system of binary hard spheres.

Hard sphere represent the computationally easiest system that shows fluid-solid phase transition and the phase diagrams of binary hard sphere mixtures can show complex features such as azeotrope formation, eutectic points, co-crystal formation, etc. Through our simulations I will show how that the underlying phase diagram strongly influences the mechanism and pathway for crystal nucleation.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Dr. Sudeep Punnathanam is an associate professor in the department of chemical engineering at IISc Bangalore. Dr. Sudeep Punnathanam studied Chemical Engineering and obtained his Bachelor’s degree from University of Roorkee (now IIT Rookee) in 1997, M.E from IISc Bangarore in 1999, and Ph.D. from Purdue University in 2003. He was a post-doctoral associate at University of Minnesota (2004-2005), University of Massachusetts (2005-2006), Amherst and Northwestern University (2006-2007). He joined IISc Bangalore in 2008 as an assistant professor. His research interests are in the area of thermodynamics, statistical mechanical, and molecular simulations.