Growth habit and surface morphology of L-arginine phosphate monohydrate single crystals

Abstract

The results of a study of the growth habit and the surface topography of L-arginine phosphate monohydrate (LAP) single crystals as a function of supersaturation are described and discussed. Apart from a change in the growth habit with supersaturation, it was observed that most of the as-grown faces of LAP exhibit isolated growth hillocks and macrohillocks and parallel bunched layers and that the formation of bunched layers is pronounced on faces showing macrohillocks. Observations of bunching of growth layers emitted by macrohillocks on the {100} faces revealed that, for the onset of bunching close to a macrospiral, there is a characteristic threshold distance whose value depends on the interstep distance and supersaturation, but is independent of step height. The theoretical habit of LAP deduced from PBC analysis showed that all faces exhibiting growth hillocks and macrohillocks are F faces. Analysis of the results on bunch formation revealed that growth of LAP takes place by the direct integration of growth entities at the growth steps, that the bunching is facilitated by an increasing value of the activation energy for their integration, and that the observed dependencies of threshold distance on interstep distance, supersaturation and step height are qualitatively in agreement with van der Eerden and Müller-Krumbhaar's theory of bunch formation.