Published in

MDPI, Materials, 18(14), p. 5373, 2021

DOI: 10.3390/ma14185373

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Upper Critical Solution Temperature Polymer Phase Transition as a Tool for the Control of Inorganic Salt Crystallization Process

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Green circle
Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

In this paper, the experimental research concerning the impact of the hydrophilic-hydrophobic transition of a polymer exhibiting the Upper Critical Solution Temperature (UCST) onto the crystallization process of inorganic salt is presented. A hypothesis was postulated that under favorable process conditions the sudden change of macromolecules properties and the resulting appearance of insoluble particles will induce the nucleation process of the salt. Since the transition point parameters may be precisely designed, the described mechanism would eliminate the stochastic nature of the crystallization process. Although performed experiments proved that the postulated process mechanism was incorrect, the presence of macromolecules had a significant impact on the crystallization course. The stochastic nature of the process was not eliminated; nevertheless, it seems that a specific point of nucleation was created which was independent of the cloud point temperature (TCP) of the polymer. Moreover, the surface morphology of crystals was changed.