EFFECTS OF LONG-RANGE REPULSIVE INTERACTIONS ON OSTWALD RIPENING

The effects of a long-range repulsive interaction on the phenomena of Ostwald ripening are studied. Beginning with a Langevin description, i nterface equations describing both the growth and motion of droplets a re derived and solved numerically. Two noncoarsening and one coarsenin g regimes are found. In the noncoarsening regimes, if the system is al lowed to reach hexagonal order, the droplet distribution function appr oaches a delta function; if hexagonal order is somehow precluded, the system becomes kinetically frozen. In the coarsening regime, the mean radius of droplets grows in time. In both the kinetically frozen and c oarsening regimes, the system is disordered and polydisperse with a st rong coupling between the position and the size of the droplets.