International Journal of Mechanics and Solids

Potassium bromide (KBr) is a white crystalline powder, soluble in water, widely used as an anticonvulsant and a sedative. In this study KBr crystals are grown using solution growth technique by slow evaporation method. The growth of crystals was studied by changing growth conditions such as by changing the concentration and temperature of the solution, by varying the size of evaporation sites. The good quality tiny crystals were selected and a single large crystal of KBr was grown in the presence of a seed crystal. It was observed that when crystals were grown by varying growth conditions, crystals of different shapes and sizes were formed. The low temperature solution growth technique allows variety of different morphologies of the same substance by changing the growth conditions. The growth process was found to be affected and crystals exhibited non-uniformity in the development of plane faces due to anisotropy of supersaturation during the growth. A large single crystal of KBr was grown and its thermoluminescent properties are studied.