Kinetics of melt crystallization of organic eutectic forming binary mixtures in non-flow systems

The kinetics of melt crystallization of binary eutectic forming organic mixtures in non-flow systems with cooling from below for the preferential crystallization of one component alone have been studied experimentally. The effect of subcooling, superheating and the initial concentration of the melt on the crystallization kinetics have been studied. Based on the experimental data, a correlation for the instantaneous height of the crystal (volume fraction of the solidified mass) has been proposed. The experimental results were also analyzed based on a model from the literature, which considered simultaneous heat and mass transport. The analysis shows that in the present experiments, the melt crystal interface was very close to the initial melt composition, i.e. concentration equilibrium was maintained. This is attributed to the very low cooling rates used, even though the thermal diffusivity is much greater than the mass diffusivity of the melt. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.