Growth and Characterization of Borax Decahydrate by Cooling Crystallization

The cooling crystallization of borax decahydrate has been investigated for the influence of temperatures on solubility, induction period and yield in order to establish the limits of conditions. Crystal morphology of borax decahydrate was studied by optical microscopy. Characterization of the crystals was performed by X-ray diffraction. The solubility curves were determined within the range of 0 to 25°C. The induction period was extremely short in seeded experiments compared with unseeded experiments. The yield was found to increase with decreasing temperatures. Microscopy observation revealed that as-grown crystals were significantly elongated in a direction parallel to the c-axis of the monoclinic system. The X-ray diffraction analysis indicated that the (002) plane of monoclinic system grew faster than the (120) plane at temperatures of 5 and 9°C. The results indicate that the temperature limit of borax decahydrate crystallization is 9°C.