Chemical Engineering & Technology, Vol.35, No.6, 1009-1012, 2012
Predicting Crystal Morphology Grown from Solution
The crystal growth process is modeled considering the concentration of solvent and solute in the solution. Molecular dynamics (MD) is performed to model the solvent effect on crystal morphology. Molecular modeling is used as tool to estimate the face growth rates of a crystal. Investigations on the liquid phase (solution), the phase separation, and the resulting solid phase (crystal) are conducted. The commercial software Materials Studio 4.0 is applied to build a layered system consisting of solution (liquid phase) and crystal surface (solid phase). The data allow predicting the crystal morphology in the presence of a solvent. The achieved predictions are in good agreement with experimental results, here presented for benzoic acid.