Formation mechanism of novel two-dimensional single crystalline dendritic copper plates in an aqueous environment

This SEM micrograph shows a 2D dendritic copper single crystal plate. The plate surface is (1 1 1). The plate nucleated in the centre with zig-zag shaped branches growing outwards along 〈112¯〉 directions. These single crystal plates are found in round, hexagonal and triangular shapes. Such crystals are formed via an explosive growth mechanism, where growth is dictated by the fastest growing kinetics of crystallographic planes and the directions are influenced by concentration gradients in the solution.