Growth-rates of Single Crystals of Ethylene Diamine d-Tartrate: Flawed Growth and its Inhibition by Boric Acid

Abstract

THE rate of growth of a crystal face depends in a general way on the supersaturation of the solution in which it grows, but this dependence has not received much quantitative study. The possibility of obtaining unique values has been in doubt, for microscopic crystals showed a great variability in the growth-rates of faces of the same form in the same solution¹. Seemingly, the microstructure of the face itself outweighed other factors. It was anticipated that on larger faces differences in the distribution of minute surface imperfections would be relatively less important, so that supersaturation could then become the rate-controlling factor; but rate data for specified faces growing in solution under steady conditions have not been available.