Investigation of growth kinetics and morphology of sodium fluorosilicate ice‐analogue crystals in solutions and gels

The effect of growth method (solution or gel growth) and growth conditions on the morphology of ice analogue crystals (sodium fluorosilicate) has been studied. Many habits typical for atmospheric ice crystals (hexagonal columns, plates, different types of stars or dendrites) were obtained during experiments. The dependence of growth rate of basal and prism faces of columnar crystals on supersaturation was measured for crystals growing by evaporation of solvent. The experiments establish evaporation rate and growth rate ranges at which appearance of certain types of crystals is most probable. The experiments have also shown that good quality sodium fluorosilicate crystals can be obtained in TMS gel. These crystals were significantly bigger than those obtained in solution. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)