Coexistence of Different Growth Mechanisms of Sodium Chlorate under the Same Experimental Conditions

Abstract

Dependence of growth rates of {100} sodium chlorate crystal faces on solution supersaturation in the range of 0.44-1.32% was analyzed. It has been shown that the growth rate dispersion does not have a consequence only in the growth parameter differences predicted by specific crystal growth theory but that individual crystal faces may grow with different mechanisms under the same experimental conditions. The majority of the observed {100} sodium chlorate crystal faces grew in accordance with the power law R ∼ σ n , whereas approximately one-third of them grew in accordance with BCF or Chernov's theories. Possible reasons for this as well as for the coexistence of crystal faces, which grew with different mechanisms under the same conditions, have been discussed.