Phases of gallium nucleated by small particles

Several structural phases of gallium can be nucleated upon cooling of mixtures of liquid gallium and an excess of particulate material. One such structural phase, which we label the theta phase, was observed in gallium and fullerene mixtures and is efficiently nucleated only by particulate material of small particle size such as soot or the separation products of soot. The -phase is possibly a recently discovered phase of gallium.