Precipitation kinetics, determination crystal growth rates

The inverse problems discussed in Sections 6.1 and 6.2 were addressed in the absence of nucleation and growth processes. In this section we investigate inverse problems for the recovery of the kinetics of nucleation and growth from experimental measurements of the number density. It is assumed, however, that particle break-up and aggregation processes do not occur. Determination of nucleation and growth rates is of considerable practical significance since the control of particle size in crystallization and precipitation processes depends critically on such information. We will dispense with the assumption of self-similar behavior, as it is often not observed in such systems. Also, we provide here only a preliminary analysis of this problem, as it is still in the process of active investigation by Mahoney (2000). 

---