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Metastability of Supersaturated Solution and Nucleation

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Advances in Organic Crystal Chemistry

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Abstract

A certain time may elapse for the occurrence of a first nucleation after a solution is made supersaturated. Thus, the supersaturated solution looks as if it could be in a metastable state though in a limited time. Such metastability of a supersaturated solution has been evaluated (rather technically) by the magnitude of the metastable zone width (MSZW), i.e., the supercooling at which a first nucleation event is detected when supersaturation is increased by cooling, or the induction time, i.e., the time elapsed until a first nucleation event is detected at a constant temperature. The larger these values are, the higher the metastability is. Surprisingly, however, these two nucleation-related quantities are not clearly understood. There is still much confusion. This chapter provides an overview of recent understandings of the MSZW and induction time with focus on the problems of (1) stochastic and deterministic aspects, (2) time-dependent change of solution structure, (3) role of nucleation, and (4) relevance to the operation of an industrial batch crystallizer.

An erratum to this chapter is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55555-1_36

An erratum to this chapter can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55555-1_36

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Bioengineering, Iwate University, Morioka, Japan

    Noriaki Kubota

  2. EN Technology Center, JGC Corporation, Yokohama, Japan

    Masanori Kobari

  3. Department of Applied Chemistry, School of Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan

    Masanori Kobari & Izumi Hirasawa

Authors
  1. Noriaki Kubota
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  2. Masanori Kobari
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  3. Izumi Hirasawa
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Correspondence to Noriaki Kubota .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Rui Tamura

  2. The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan

    Mikiji Miyata

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Kubota, N., Kobari, M., Hirasawa, I. (2015). Metastability of Supersaturated Solution and Nucleation. In: Tamura, R., Miyata, M. (eds) Advances in Organic Crystal Chemistry. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-55555-1_7

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