Interpretation of the microwave effect on induction time during CaSO4 primary nucleation by a cluster coagulation model

A cluster coagulation model, which brings together the classic nucleation models and the theories describing the behavior of colloidal suspension, was applied to estimate the induction time under various energy inputs. It is found that when nucleation is prominently homogeneous, the microwave energy input does not change the number of monomers in dominating clusters. And when nucleation is prominently heterogeneous, although the dominating cluster size increases with supersaturation increasing, at the same supersaturation level, the dominating cluster size remains constant in the microwave field.