SECONDARY NUCLEATION OF SUCROSE BY FLUID SHEAR IN AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS

The motivation for this work was based on two hypotheses: subcritical nuclei of sucrose may be generated by secondary nucleation using a fluid shear field acting on the surface of a growing seed crystal in aqueous solutions, and a near-dynamic equilibrium distribution of embryos may be attained. These were supported experimentally. The value of a σ-based model parameter, a, was obtained by describing the system by a Boltzman- like distribution model. The number concentration of subcritical nuclei was well described by the model. Despite differences in experimental method and in the basic nature of the solute, sucrose, the behavior of the system and results were similar to those obtained in the earlier work using aqueous salt solutions [Sung et al. (1973), Jagannathan et al. (1980)].