Salts nucleation/growth

A very different nucleation scheme by Grieser and co-workers employs ultrasonic irradiation of salt solutions to create H- and OH- radicals in solution [73]. These radicals proceed to nucleate growth of quantum-sized (Q-state) particles of cadmium sqlfide. Similar initiation has been used for polymer latices [74]. 

Gas AntisolventRecrystallizations. A limitation to the RESS process can be the low solubihty in the supercritical fluid. This is especially evident in polymer—supercritical fluid systems. In a novel process, sometimes termed gas antisolvent (GAS), a compressed fluid such as CO2 can be rapidly added to a solution of a crystalline soHd dissolved in an organic solvent (114). Carbon dioxide and most organic solvents exhibit full miscibility, whereas in this case the soHd solutes had limited solubihty in CO2. Thus, CO2 acts as an antisolvent to precipitate soHd crystals. Using C02 s adjustable solvent strength, the particle size and size distribution of final crystals may be finely controlled. Examples of GAS studies include the formation of monodisperse particles (<1 fiva) of a difficult-to-comminute explosive (114) recrystallization of -carotene and acetaminophen (86) salt nucleation and growth in supercritical water (115) and a study of the molecular thermodynamics of the GAS crystallization process (21). 

Salt nucleation and growth studies have also been performed to better understand kinetics and mechanisms associated with these phenomena. Most of these types of studies involve sudden contact of a dissolved salt stream with another fluid or solid body whose temperature is sufficient to cause precipitation of the salt. This approach allows one to observe the morphology of salt particles as they form and grow. The particle morphology can have a signilicanl impact on the particular macroscopic transport characteristics exhibited by the salt as it moves or accumulates within a SCWO reactor. Notable salt nucleation and growth studies in supercritical water have been performed within an optically accessible cell, within a heated tubular reactor, and on a heated solid cylinder. ... 

According to the nucleation-growth theory (Murat et al.), the salt with a z/r value larger than that of Ca should restrain the hydration of anhydrite. However, Yang et al l found that the Cd, Cu, Mn, and Fe sulphates were able to excite the hydration of anhydrite, while those with a z/r value less than that of Ca such as LF, Na, and K showed different excitation properties when combining different anion, suggesting that during the hydration of anhydrite the influence of anion should be taken into consideration. 

Tester and his colleagues have studied the deposition of salt (NaCl and Na2S04) from supercritical water at c, 550°C and 250 bar, by mixing a stream of cold salt solution with larger stream of the supercritical water [108]. The motive was to study the salt nucleation and growth which occurs during oxidations in supercritical water. 

Dislocation theory as a portion of the subject of solid-state physics is somewhat beyond the scope of this book, but it is desirable to examine the subject briefly in terms of its implications in surface chemistry. Perhaps the most elementary type of defect is that of an extra or interstitial atom—Frenkel defect [110]—or a missing atom or vacancy—Schottky defect [111]. Such point defects play an important role in the treatment of diffusion and electrical conductivities in solids and the solubility of a salt in the host lattice of another or different valence type [112]. Point defects have a thermodynamic basis for their existence in terms of the energy and entropy of their formation, the situation is similar to the formation of isolated holes and erratic atoms on a surface. Dislocations, on the other hand, may be viewed as an organized concentration of point defects they are lattice defects and play an important role in the mechanism of the plastic deformation of solids. Lattice defects or dislocations are not thermodynamic in the sense of the point defects their formation is intimately connected with the mechanism of nucleation and crystal growth (see Section IX-4), and they constitute an important source of surface imperfection. 

Wet preparation of red iron oxides can involve either a hydrothermal process (see Hydrothermal processing) or a direct precipitation and growth of iron oxide particles on specially prepared nucleating seeds of Fe202- In the hydrothermal process, iron(II) salt is chemically oxidized to iron(III) salt, which is further treated by alkahes to precipitate a hydrated iron(III) oxide gel. The gel can be dehydrated to anhydrous hematite under pressure at a temperature around 150°C. 

Scaling is not always related to temperature. Calcium carbonate and calcium sulfate scaling occur on unheated surfaces when their solubiUties are exceeded in the bulk water. Metallic surfaces are ideal sites for crystal nucleation because of their rough surfaces and the low velocities adjacent to the surface. Corrosion cells on the metal surface produce areas of high pH, which promote the precipitation of many cooling water salts. Once formed, scale deposits initiate additional nucleation, and crystal growth proceeds at an accelerated rate. 

Precipitatioa (2,13—17) techniques employ a combination of nucleation and growth iaduced by adding a chemical precipitant, or by changing the temperature and/or pressure of the solution. Chemical homogeneity is controlled by controlling the rate of precipitation. FFeterogeneous precipitation iavolves the precipitation of a soHd of different composition from the solution, and the composition of the precipitate may change as precipitation continues. Coprecipitation iavolves the simultaneous precipitation of similar size cations ia a salt as a soHd solutioa. 

Torkar et al. [702,706—708] identified nucleation as an autocatalytic process at the (hk0) planes of hexagonal platelets of NaN3. The decelera-tory reaction fitted the first-order equation [eqn. (15)]. Values of E tended to be irreproducible for the pure salt E was about 180 kJ mole 1 but this was reduced to about half by doping. This influence of an additive and the observed similarities in magnitudes of E for decomposition and for diffusion were interpreted as indicating that growth of nuclei was controlled by a diffusion process. 

Metal salts of carboxylic acids obviously possess some organic character, but decompositions of these substances can be considered in the present context. Many metal carboxylates decompose at a reactant—product interface and their nucleation and growth processes are similar to the behav-... 

The several A and E values cited apply to the overall reaction, which involves composite nucleation followed by growth. Attempts were made to measure individually the kinetic characteristics of these steps from examination of electron micrographs for salt decomposed (a < 0.2). Such... 

The predominant gaseous products of the decomposition [1108] of copper maleate at 443—613 K and copper fumarate at 443—653 K were C02 and ethylene. The very rapid temperature rise resulting from laser heating [1108] is thought to result in simultaneous decarboxylation to form acetylene via the intermediate —CH=CH—. Preliminary isothermal measurements [487] for both these solid reactants (and including also copper malonate) found the occurrence of an initial acceleratory process, ascribed to a nucleation and growth reaction. Thereafter, there was a discontinuous diminution in rate (a 0.4), ascribed to the deposition of carbon at the active surfaces of growing copper nuclei. Bassi and Kalsi [1282] report that the isothermal decomposition of copper(II) adipate at 483—503 K obeyed the Prout—Tompkins equation [eqn. (9)] with E = 191 kJ mole-1. Studies of the isothermal decompositions of the copper(II) salts of benzoic, salicylic and malonic acids are also cited in this article. 

Although some progress has been made in determining the geometry of interface advance through interpretation of observed f(a)—time relationships for individual salts, the reasons for differences between related substances have not always been established. Nickel carboxylates, for which the most extensive sequence of comparative rate studies has been made [40,88,375,502,1106,1107,1109], show a wide variety of kinetic characteristics, but the controlling factors have not yet been satisfactorily determined. Separate measurements of the rates of nucleation and of growth are not usually practicable. 

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