Nucleation kinetics of pentaerythritol (original) (raw)

The solubility and the primary nucleation kinetics of pentaerythritol (PE) at 98% and 94% purity in aqueous solution were investigated in the range 20-80 "C, and the effect of adding 1% formaldehyde or 2% formic acid was also examined. The solubility increases with decreasing purity of the product and on adding the cited compounds to the solution. The nucleation kinetics exhibit high values of nucleation order, ranging from 32 to 10 for nucleation temperatures in the range 1+61 "C; that is, the generation of nuclei becomes significant only after exceeding a threshold value of supersaturation, which increases as the temperature decreases.