Crystallization is one of the most widely used purification and separation processes. Nevertheless, the initial step of the crystallization process, nucleation, is still poorly understood and highly stochastic. As a result, most crystallization processes lack fine control over t
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Crystallization is one of the most widely used purification and separation processes. Nevertheless, the initial step of the crystallization process, nucleation, is still poorly understood and highly stochastic. As a result, most crystallization processes lack fine control over the produced crystal properties. Non photochemical Laser Induced Nucleation is seen as a promising technique to optimize crystallization processes, by decreasing the induction time and potentially offering more control over crystal size, amount and morphology. However, as its underlying mechanism has not yet been unveiled its appli cation is still limited. Further study of the phenomenon is thus essential, yet limited by the stochastic nature of the process. Past research has been laborious and timeconsuming, due to the substantial number of samples needed to attain statistical significance of the results. Microfluidics could offer a solution to this issue, since it allows for the study of copious amounts of independent samples in short time frames, whilst using less resources. In this study, a microfluidic system previously designed and validated within Eral Lab was further improved. Once improved, the system was used to study the effects of common NPLIN parameters such as supersaturation, laser intensity and laser wavelength on the nucleation probability in thousands of independent micro droplets. The experiments were performed using KCl solutions of both 1.05 and 1.10 supersaturation index and irradiated with light of three different wavelengths and four different laser intensities. Control cooling experiments were conducted to serve as a reference and measure the effectiveness of irradiation. Results indicated that, increasing the supersaturation increases the nucleation probability. However, small differences between both supersaturations were observed, potentially indicating a supersatura tion dependent laser intensity threshold. A threshold possibly explained by the Nanoparticle Heating model used to describe Nonphotochemical Laser Induced Nucleation. Laser irradiation of 1.05 su persaturated solutions was seen to be effective with light of all colours at higher laser intensities (≥ 50 MW/cm2). In contrast, for 1.10 supersaturated solutions irradiation was, in most cases, already effective at lower laser intensities (≥ 25 MW/cm2). No significant wavelength effect was observed, besides irradiation with 355 nm light at higher laser intensities (≥ 50 MW/cm2) to be more effective on 1.10 supersaturated solutions. Further analysis of the data was done by investigating the ability of common nucleation models, such as the Classical Nucleation Theory and the Dielectric Polarization model, to describe the behaviour. Results of the Classical Nucleation Theory were highly uncertain due to a limited amount of data points at varying supersaturations. Yet, indicated a heterogeneous influence on the nucleation probability in both the control cooling and laser irradiation experiments. The Dielectric Polarization model was not able to properly describe the nucleation events observed in the experiments, as lability parameters calculated for the experiments were inconsistent with literature and suffered from significant errors.