Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.129, No.15, 4714-4723, 2007
Surface-mediated nucleation in the solid-state polymorph transformation of terephthalic acid
A molecular mechanism for nucleation for the solid-state polymorph transformation of terephthalic acid is presented. New methods recently developed in our group, aimless shooting and likelihood maximization, are employed to construct a model for the reaction coordinate for the two system sizes studied. The reaction coordinate approximation is validated using the committor probability analysis. The transformation proceeds via a localized, elongated nucleus along the crystal edge formed by fluctuations in the supramolecular synthons, suggesting a nucleation and growth mechanism in the macroscopic system.