Abstract:
In-situ optical microscopy was used to measure the growth rate of gibbsite
single crystals growing from aqueous sodium aluminate solutions. The growth
rate was measured for various crystal faces, i.e., {100} and {001} faces
in case of twinned hexagons and {110} faces for single crystalline lozenges.
A considerable dispersion in crystal growth rate was measured: the growth
rates varied from crystal to crystal within the same experiment as well
as from experiment to experiment. They also fluctuated in time. The origin
of this dispersion in growth rates is discussed. The results of the growth
rates measured as a function of the driving force, which were averaged
over several crystals, were fitted with growth rate equations for various
growth mechanisms. It is shown that the birth and spread-type growth rate
equation defined by Nielsen (J. Cryst. Growth 1984, 67, 289-310) as well
as an equation derived in this paper for step nucleation growth at the
intersection line of contacting crystallites can be used to describe the
growth rates of gibbsite in all crystallographic directions.