A microfluidic device for investigating crystal nucleation kinetics

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel microfluidic device that enables precise control of temperature and supersaturation in microreactors to study crystal nucleation kinetics, providing detailed experimental data to test classical nucleation theory.

Contribution

The study presents a new microfluidic setup capable of producing monodisperse microreactors with rapid temperature control to investigate nucleation kinetics at high supersaturations.

Findings

Measured nucleation rates at various supersaturations.

Demonstrated rapid temperature quenching up to 50°C in 10 seconds.

Provided experimental data to compare with classical nucleation theory.

Abstract

We have developed an original setup using microfluidic tools allowing one to produce continuously monodisperse microreactors ($\approx 100$ nL), and to control their temperatures as they flow in the microdevice. With a specific microchannels geometry, we are able to apply large temperature quenches to droplets containing a KNO$_3$ solution (up to 50$^{\circ}$C in 10 s), and then to follow nucleation kinetics at high supersaturations. By measuring the probability of crystal presence in the droplets as a function of time, we estimate the nucleation rate for different supersaturations, and confront our results to the classical nucleation theory.