Influence of Supersaturation, Temperature and Rotational Speed on Induction Time of Calcium Sulfate Crystallization

Calcium sulfate is a very important product of precipitation reactions in various branches of industry. The most common applications include building materials, impression materials in dentistry, immobilizing casts and an inactive ingredient of tablet excipients. It is also used as a drying agent and color glaze. In this paper, influence of various conditions, i.e., substrates concentration (supersaturation), temperature and rotational speed on induction time was investigated. The range of investigated parameters was 0.15–0.35 M for concentration with step of 0.05 M, 298–323 K with step of 5 K for temperature, and 1.67–8.33 s−1 for rotational speed with change every 1.67 s−1. The experiments were performed using visual and turbidimetric methods. It was proven that increase in all three investigated parameters resulted in shorter induction time. The turbidimetric method was found to be more precise, but still insufficient for concentrations below 0.15 M. Moreover, as a result of data analysis, a simple method of induction time calculation was proposed when arbitrary measurements in various concentrations are known.