In this paper we formulate and analyse several models of generalised nuclea
tion and growth processes which include primary and secondary nucleation in
the presence of inhibitors, at various levels of coarse-graining from micr
oscopic, through mesoscopic to macroscopic. The mesoscopic models are based
on ones derived in an earlier paper (J. A. D. Wattis and P. V. Coveney, J.
Chem. Phys., 1997, 106, 9122), but until now none of their physicochemical
properties have been studied. Our analysis, which makes extensive use of m
atched asymptotic expansions, shows the dependence of the induction time on
the cluster size for which the strongest inhibition and/or secondary nucle
ation occurs. One potential application of the model is to barium sulfate n
ucleation and crystal growth, of relevance inter alia to scale formation in
oil wells and reservoirs.