Two-step nucleation and crystal growth in a metastable solution

Abstract

This study is concerned with a theory of two-step nucleation and growth of crystals in a metastable liquid. This mechanism is that crystalline nuclei formation occurs in dense liquid clusters suspended in the solution. These clusters contain higher solution concentration and viscosity, leading to a lower surface free energy barrier and faster phase transition route. The theory is based on growth laws of crystals during the two-step bulk phase transformation. At the initial stage, the crystals evolve in a diffusion-limited environment with almost unchanged supersaturation. At the second stage, they become larger, move beyond these clusters, and evolve in accordance with a hyperbolic tangent law. A generalized particle growth law joining the first and second stages is obtained by stitching the diffusion limited and hyperbolic tangent laws. On this basis, an integrodifferential model of the evolution of a polydisperse ensemble of crystals was formulated and solved. The crystal-size distribution function increases and the solution supersaturation remains practically unchanged until the particle size corresponds to a transition in the particle growth rate from a diffusion-limited branch to a hyperbolic tangent branch. This is followed by an increase in the crystal growth rate, a decrease in the distribution function and solution supersaturation. Then the distribution function increases up to the maximum size of crystals grown in the solution. A sufficiently long time interval of almost constant supersaturation and the N-shaped behavior of the distribution function are the consequences of a two-step nucleation and growth mechanisms.