Cyclic Crystal Growth and Dissolution in a Closed System

This is the first report on cyclic crystal growth and dissolution in a closed system. Under a small temperature gradient, RbBr crystals of the high-pressure phase confined within their aqueous solution in a diamond anvil cell split spontaneously into several segments and some of them then dissolved out. As long as the temperature gradients were maintained, the segmentation and selection cycle continued. The essentially dynamic behavior in this system is made possible by the recyclable use of constitutional elements in which partial growth on the crystal surface and survival competition between the segmented crystals are subtly coordinated in turn under gravity.