How small a molecular crystal can be? Looking for Hidden Crystalline Aggregates in Dissolving Benzoic Acid Nanoparticles

Answering the title question would provide valuable information on the behaviour of matter at the molecular scale. The problem is far from trivial: nanocrystals emerging from their liquid matrix are too small to be detected unequivocally by standard crystallographic techniques. The aim of work is to investigate dissolution kinetics of crystalline nanoparticle of benzoic acid (BZA) embedded in its liquid. Top-down approach was employed to find persistent aggregates that may conserve some amount of translational symmetry close to the end of the dissolution process. These aggregates could provide a reasonable model for the elusive entities that are sometimes referred to as “crystal embryos”.