KINETICS OF CHIRAL-SYMMETRY BREAKING IN CRYSTALLIZATION

Results of our study of the kinetics of stirred crystallization that p roduces large (greater than 99%) asymmetry are presented. The change o f concentration with time as the crystallization progresses is obtaine d for stirred and unstirred crystallizations. A sharp difference in th e two concentration vs time curves, due to secondary nucleation in the stirred system, can be observed. Experimental results are compared wi th the predictions of a set of stochastic kinetic equations. It is fou nd that the proposed kinetics can quite accurately reproduce the exper imental data if it is assumed that secondary nuclei are produced in st irred systems only when the parent crystal reaches a minimum size.