Crystal growth of single salicylamide crystals

Growth of single salicylamide crystals was investigated in a nonstirred growth cuvette and on a rotating disk. In the growth cuvette the crystal growth rates were measured for both primary nucleated crystals and seed crystals manually inserted into the cuvette. In the rotating disk experiments multiple seed crystals were attached to a disk that was rotated in a supersaturated solution. The crystal growth rates in the length and width direction were precisely measured in situ for each individual crystal, and growth rates were also extracted for a specific crystal facet, that is, (200). In all cases, the growth rate was considerably faster in the rotating disk experiments, shown to be governed by surface integration. Solvent was found to impact the growth rates of the crystal facets in part by creating different surface features. The influence of the supersaturation on the crystal growth rate depended on the solvent; in general, an increasing trend was observed. At relatively low supersaturations, it was discovered that the growth process will focus on repairing morphological defects. Within the range of experimental conditions, the growth kinetics were strongly affected by the temperature as was further indicated by the relatively high activation energy values obtained. The crystal seed quality was found to have a substantial impact on the growth rate, with rougher crystals leading to quicker growth. A wide growth rate dispersion was obtained for both crystal growth methods, found to be reduced by using seed crystals with high quality, lower supersaturations, and also within certain solvents.