ISBN 978-3-8439-4668-1

978-3-8439-4668-1, Reihe Verfahrenstechnik

Daniel Ruben Selzer
On Primary Crystal Nucleation in Electrolyte Solutions of Well-Soluble Substances Primary Nucleation Kinetics and Nucleation Mechanisms at Low and High Supersaturation

230 Seiten, Dissertation Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (2020), Softcover, A5

Zusammenfassung / Abstract

Crystal nucleation plays a key role in many natural phenomena such as the crystallization of cloud droplets. In chemical and pharmaceutical industry, crystallization from solution is an important process used to accomplish separation tasks or to produce crystalline products (e.g., pharmaceuticals) of high purity. Since nucleation is the first step in the formation of new crystalline material, it has a great impact on product particle properties. In most cases, product particles have to meet stringent requirements regarding the product quality (e.g., particle size distribution, morphology). To meet these requirements, a good control of crystal nucleation is necessary. However, despite the great importance for fundamental research and industrial crystallization processes, nucleation is still a puzzling phenomenon that is not yet fully understood. In particular is completely missing some understanding of nucleation kinetics of well-soluble substances at high supersaturation. Therefore, this work aims to experimentally determine nucleation kinetics and the underlying nucleation mechanisms of well-soluble substances within a supersaturation range that covers several orders of magnitude up to high supersaturation. In addition to this, this work aims to identify heterogeneous nucleation sites capable to induce heterogeneous nucleation within the investigated supersaturation range. It is known that foreign particles play a key role in heterogeneous nucleation. However, the decisive properties of these particles for their efficiency as nucleation sites are essentially unknown. A further goal of this work is therefore to identify the particle properties responsible for the ability of such particles to induce heterogeneous nucleation.