Effects of organic solvents on the morphology of the meta-nitroaniline crystal

The theoretical morphology of a meta-nitroaniline (mNA) crystal and the solvent effects on the growth morphology were analysed. The morphology of an mNA crystal grown in a nonpolar solvent such as toluene is consistent with that predicted by the BFDH model and that by the AE model which only took van der Waals interaction into consideration. This shows that the nonpolar solvent could eliminate the electrostatic interactions between solute molecules in the solution and on the crystal surface. It also means that the BFDH model could be taken as the AE model only taking van der Waals interaction into account. For solvents with strong polarity, such as ethanol and acetone, the morphologies of the crystal grown in them were far from that predicted by the AE or the Ising model. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.