Effects of temperature and concentration on particle size in a lactose solution using dynamic light scattering analysis

Nucleation, as well as the processes affecting it, is a constant source of interest for scientists dealing with crystallisation. The majority of published material focuses on secondary nucleation because of the complexity of the crystallisation process. The influence of temperature and different levels of concentration, from highly supersaturated solutions down to lactose solutions below the supersaturated level, on lactose primary cluster was investigated using the dynamic light scattering (DLS) method. The minimum particle size in the solution was found; it varied from 0.89 to 1.17 nm and matched the size of a single lactose molecule (1.18 nm), which was estimated by using molecular modelling techniques. Using the DLS technique, it was confirmed that particle size increased with the decrease of temperature and increasing of concentration of the solution. Theoretical calculations were made to estimate a predicted number of molecules that form particles of primary clusters with different sizes.