Investigation of Growth Mechanisms of Sodium Chlorate Crystals from Aqueous Solutions

Abstract

Difficulties in determining the crystal growth mechanism from growth rate versus solution supersaturation dependence are discussed. Obtained results indicate that in the supersaturation range of 0.66-1.56%, sodium chlorate crystals grow in accordance with the spiral growth model. It is shown that in the supersaturation range of 0.44-1.32%, the growth mechanism depends on crystal growth history. Namely, the exponent n in the power law R = Kσn depends on the manner of supersaturation changes (varied from 1.3 to 1.9%). This indicates that the overlapping of diffusion fields of neighboring steps depends on growth history.