Microfluidic control of nucleation and growth of calcite

TL;DR

This paper presents a microfluidic method to precisely control and observe calcite nucleation and growth, enabling detailed in situ analysis of growth rates under varying fluid flow conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel microfluidic approach for studying calcite growth at the single-crystal level with controlled fluid flow and concentration.

Findings

Successful in situ measurement of calcite growth rate

Controlled calcite nucleation via fluid flow rate adjustment

Enhanced understanding of calcite growth dynamics

Abstract

The nucleation and growth of calcite is an important research in scientific and industrial field. Both the macroscopic and microscopic observation of calcite growth have been reported. Now, with the development of microfluidic device, we could focus the nucleation and growth of one single calcite. By changing the flow rate of fluid, the concentration of fluid is controlled. We introduced a new method to study calcite growth in situ and measured the growth rate of calcite in microfluidic channel.