The
present work investigates liquid antisolvent crystallization
of cholesterol from a water (antisolvent)–ethanol (solvent)–cholesterol
(solute) solution. It focuses on (i) a proposed mechanism of nucleation
based on visual observations, (ii) mathematical modeling to validate
the mechanism, and (iii) experimental parametric variations of particle
size. The experiments demonstrate a 2-step sequence of primary and
secondary nucleation. By employing the solid–liquid interfacial
energy estimated from experimental induction time and kinetic parameters
selected from the literature, the model predicts a particle diameter
of 3.5 μm at 299.5 K after 30 s, in agreement with the experimental
value of 3.8 μm, and two-level nucleation events of cholesterol
to affirm the proposed mechanism. Experimental studies confirm that
particle size decreases with initial supersaturation and antisolvent
addition rate, and increases with temperature and batch time. At 290.5–299.5
K, the particle length increases from 6.1 to 7.2 μm after 4
h for the antisolvent to solution mode of addition, while it decreases
to 5.7 μm at 299.5 K for the solution to antisolvent mode.
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