Abstract for presentation at Chemeca 2007

An In-Situ Optical Microscopic Study of Sodium Nitrate Crystallisation

  • Angelina Rossiter, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
  • Dr Sawsan Freij, University of Melbourne, Australia
  • Prof Dong-ke Zhang, Curtin University of Technology, Australia

    • In-situ optical microscopy was employed to study the crystal nucleation and growth of sodium nitrate at different temperatures (20ºC, 30ºC and 40ºC) and several initial supersaturations (0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08 and 0.1). Growth rates were calculated by measuring the time-resolved change in size of single crystals. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to study the morphology of crystals grown under different conditions.

    The results show that increasing supersaturation and temperature increases the growth rate of sodium nitrate. To fit the kinetic data, the mean growth rate values were fitted with a kinetic model incorporating the mass transfer effect.

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