- Nucleation: Achieve consistent primary nucleation and avoid secondary nucleation events.
- Growth: Enhance growth over nucleation to increase crystal size.
- Oiling out: Determine the phase diagram and avoid conditions where oiling out occurs.
- Agglomeration: Avoid agglomeration through solvent selection and parameter control.
- Breakage: Avoid unwanted breakage and addition and control desired wet-milling.
- Seeding: Optimize seeding protocol to deliver desired particle properties.
- Polymorph transformation: Navigate the phase diagram to produce the desired form.
Often, crystallization mechanisms occur simultaneously, making effective crystallization design a challenge. In the absence of mechanistic understanding, scientists rely on trial-and-error to adjust process parameters and optimize yield, purity, and crystal size. By understanding which mechanisms occur during crystallization, scientists can deploy strategies to deliver a crystal product with the desired properties.
Read our 7 Crystallization Mechanisms Hiding Between Your Samples Guide to learn how mechanisms can influence the outcome of your crystallization process.