Effect of temperature on the nucleation kinetics of α L-glutamic acid

In this work, the nucleation kinetics of a L-glutamic acid is determined on the basis of induction time measurements. L-Glutamic acid is precipitated by pH-shift in a stirred batch reactor. The induction times are measured at different supersaturations using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy and focused beam reflectance measurement (FBRM), and applying a previously developed method [J. Scholl, L. Vicum, M. Muller, M. Mazzotti, Precipitation of L-glutamic acid: Determination of nucleation kinetics. Chemical Engineering & Technology 29(2) (2006) 257-264]. Moreover, the effect of temperature on the induction time is studied. Together with independently measured growth kinetics, the nucleation rates are determined. Finally, the nucleation kinetics is used to calculate the interfacial energies. The analysis of the estimated kinetics parameters and of the calculated interfacial energies indicates a heterogeneous nucleation mechanism. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.