COOLING CRYSTALLIZATION EXPERIMENTS OBSERVED BY IN-SITU SCANNING FORCE MICROSCOPY

The change in surface morphology of potassium nitrate and potassium al um has been studied in situ by means of scanning force microscopy. The supersaturation and undersaturation were varied in a cooling crystall izer under flow conditions. To keep the crystal growth rate of potassi um nitrate low, the specific additive DOW FAX 3B2 had been used in dif ferent concentrations. The crystal growth rate of both systems could b e determined and the growth and dissolution surface morphologies of po tassium alum exhibited structures similar to those of microscopic meas urements.