Depending on the dispersed state of the sample, homogenization was achieved in up to one hour. On the photographs, the sudden appearance of droplets could be seen, heterogeneously distributed in location as well as in size. Within one minute the droplets grew to an average diameter of 0.8 mm. The droplets were most likely generated by heterogeneous nucleation at the gallium surface or at the container wall made of teflon. Considering growth only by diffusion this sudden increase cannot be explained.
Calculations indicate that the diameter increase is by at least a factor of five too fast.
Other processes like convective transport initiated by concentration gradients or coalescence are likely to have contributed to this fast growth. The distribution of mercury droplets in the gallium matrix is generally not homogeneous. Besides spherically shaped droplets, irregular areas are evident which are probably caused by preferential wetting. The analysis of the droplet dissolution while heating out of the miscibility gap revealed that the radii decreased approximately linearly with time. This rate is larger than expected by a diffusion limited process.