Crystallization

Crystallization is the (natural or artificial) process where a solid forms where the atoms or molecules are highly organized in a structure known as a crystal. Some of the ways which crystals form are through precipitating from a solution, melt or more rarely deposited directly from a gas. Crystallization is also a chemical solid–liquid separation technique, in which mass transfer of a solute from the liquid solution to a pure solid crystalline phase occurs. In chemical engineering crystallization occurs in a crystallizer. Crystallization is therefore related to precipitation, although the result is not amorphous or disordered, but a crystal.