Many biomineralization systems start from transient amorphous precursor phases, but the exact crystallization pathways and mechanisms remain largely unknown. The study of a well-defined biomimetic crystallization system is key for elucidating the possible mechanisms of biomineralization and monitoring the detailed crystallization pathways. In this review, we focus on amorphous phase mediated cr...

Although polyethylene glycol (PEG) is the most widely used precipitant in protein crystallization, the concentration of co-existing salt in the solution has not been well discussed. To determine the optimum salt concentration range, several kinds of protein were crystallized in a 30% PEG 4000 solution at various NaCl concentrations with various pH levels. It was found that, if crystallization o...

Crystallization trials at the Division of Structural Biology in Oxford are now almost exclusively carried out using a high-throughput workflow implemented in the Oxford Protein Production Facility. Initial crystallization screening is based on nanolitre-scale sitting-drop vapour-diffusion experiments (typically 100 nl of protein plus 100 nl of reservoir solution per droplet) which use standard ...

Stress-induced viscous flow is the characteristic of atomic movements during plastic deformation of metallic glasses in the absence of substantial temperature increase, which suggests that stress state plays an important role in mechanically induced crystallization in a metallic glass. However, it is poorly understood. Here, we report on the stress-induced localized crystallization in individua...

We have investigated the crystallization kinetics of Cu50Zr50 metallic glass thin films using nanocalorimetry. The crystallization process is growth-controlled during heating and nucleation-controlled during cooling, resulting in different critical heating and cooling rates to suppress crystallization. Measurements over a wide range of scanning rates (13 K/s to 21,000 K/s) reveal that crystalli...

Focused acoustic energy allows accurate and precise liquid transfer on scales from picolitre to microlitre volumes. This technology was applied in protein crystallization, successfully transferring a diverse set of proteins as well as hundreds of precipitant solutions from custom and commercial crystallization screens and achieving crystallization in drop volumes as small as 20 nl. Only higher ...

Isothermal crystallization studies are performed on Zr41Ti14Cu12Ni10Be23 melts. Undercooling experiments are carried out repeatedly at 907, 860, and 750 K. The scattering of the time to reach the onset of crystallization is investigated. Results from experiments performed at 907 K show a large scatter of the onset time of crystallization. For the experiments carried out at 860 and 750 K, scatte...

Crystallization represents the prime example of a disorder-order transition. In realistic situations, however, container walls and impurities are frequently present and hence crystallization is heterogeneously seeded. Rarely the seeds are perfectly compatible with the thermodynamically favoured crystal structure and thus induce elastic distortions, which impede further crystal growth. Here we u...

The Marseille Protein Crystallization Database (MPCD) is a new crystallization database, freely accessible via http://www.crmcn.univ-mrs.fr/mpcd/, populated with information found in the BMCD and CYCLOP. This new online database includes details about macromolecules (such as name, pI, molecular weight, number of subunits), crystallization conditions, methods and additives used in an easy-to-com...

This study describes a catalytic decomposition and crystallization process to recover phytosterols from the waste residue of soybean oil deodorizer distillate (WRSODD). Various solvents were used for the crystallization of phytosterols. The effect of different solvents on the purity and yield of recovered phytosterols was investigated. The composition of WRSODD was analyzed by silica gel column...