Search results for "Crystallization"
showing 10 items of 774 documents
Fire effects on soil aggregation: A review
2011
Abstract Fire can affect soil properties depending on a number of factors including fire severity and soil type. Aggregate stability (AS) refers to soil structure resilience in response to external mechanical forces. Many authors consider soil aggregation to be a parameter reflecting soil health, as it depends on chemical, physical and biological factors. The response of AS to forest fires is complex, since it depends on how fire has affected other related properties such as organic matter content, soil microbiology, water repellency and soil mineralogy. Opinions differ concerning the effect of fire on AS. Some authors have observed a decrease in AS in soils affected by intense wildfire or …
Lysozyme crystallization rates controlled by anomalous fluctuations
2005
Abstract Nucleation of protein aggregates and crystals is a process activated by statistical fluctuations of concentration. Nucleation rates may change by several orders of magnitude upon apparently minor changes in the multidimensional space of parameters (temperature, pH, protein concentration, salt type and concentrations, additives). We use available data on hen egg lysozyme crystal induction times in different solution conditions. We measure by static and dynamic light scattering the amplitudes and lifetimes of anomalously ample and long-lived fluctuations occurring in proximity of the liquid–liquid demixing region of the given lysozyme solutions. This allows determining the related sp…
Crystal structure determination of a new LaPO4 phase in a multicomponent glass ceramic via 3D electron diffraction
2022
Abstract A glass ceramic from the MgO–Al2O3–SiO2 system containing additives of ZrO2, TiO2, La2O3 and P2O5 was investigated. Via x-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and Transmission electron microscopy(TEM) the crystalline phases present could be identified as MgAl2O4 (Spinel), orthorhombic ZrTiO4 and a polymorph of LaPO4 with a previously unknown crystal structure. The crystal structure of this LaPO4 phase was solved ab initio via 3D ED Data. The polymorph occurs in a distorted barite structure type in the same space group (P21/n) as the stable monazite type polymorph, however the density is higher and the La has a higher coordination number. Furthermore the LaPO4 is present in a spinodal reli…
Protein aggregation/crystallization and minor structural changes: universal versus specific aspects.
2007
AbstractProtein association covers wide interests in biophysics, protein science, and biotechnologies, and it is often viewed as governed by conformation details. More recently, the existence of a universal physical principle governing aggregation/crystallization processes has been suggested by a series of experiments and shown to be linked to the universal scaling properties of concentration fluctuations occurring in the proximity of a phase transition (spinodal demixing in the specific case). Such properties have provided a quantitative basis for capturing kinetic association data on a universal master curve, ruled by the normalized distance of the state of the system from its instability…
Calorimetric properties of water and triacylglycerols in fern spores relating to storage at cryogenic temperatures.
2007
Abstract Storing spores is a promising method to conserve genetic diversity of ferns ex situ . Inappropriate water contents or damaging effects of triacylglycerol (TAG) crystallization may cause initial damage and deterioration with time in spores placed at −15 °C or liquid nitrogen temperatures. We used differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to monitor enthalpy and temperature of water and TAG phase transitions within spores of five fern species: Pteris vittata , Thelypteris palustris , Dryopteris filix-mas , Polystichum aculeatum , Polystichum setiferum . The analyses suggested that these fern spores contained between 26% and 39% TAG, and were comprised of mostly oleic ( P. vittata ) or …
Polydisperse hard spheres: crystallization kinetics in small systems and role of local structure
2016
We study numerically the crystallization of a hard-sphere mixture with 8\% polydispersity. Although often used as a model glass former, for small system sizes we observe crystallization in molecular dynamics simulations. This opens the possibility to study the competition between crystallization and structural relaxation of the melt, which typically is out of reach due to the disparate timescales. We quantify the dependence of relaxation and crystallization times on density and system size. For one density and system size we perform a detailed committor analysis to investigate the suitability of local structures as order parameters to describe the crystallization process. We find that local…
To make a glass—avoid the crystal
2016
Colloidal model systems allow for a flexible tuning of particle sizes, particle spacings and mutual interactions at constant temperature. Colloidal suspensions typically crystallize as soon as the interactions get sufficiently strong and long-ranged. Several strategies have been successfully applied to avoid crystallization and instead produce colloidal glasses. Most of these amorphous solids are formed at high particle concentrations. This paper shortly reviews experimental attempts to produce amorphous colloidal solids using strategies based on topological, thermodynamic and kinetic considerations. We complement this overview by introducing a (transient) amorphous solid forming in a thoro…
Molecular recognition of N-acetyltryptophan enantiomers by β-cyclodextrin
2017
The enantioselectivity of β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) towards L- and D-N-acetyltryptophan (NAcTrp) has been studied in aqueous solution and the crystalline state. NMR studies in solution show that β-CD forms complexes of very similar but not identical geometry with both L- and D-NAcTrp and exhibits stronger binding with L-NAcTrp. In the crystalline state, only β-CD–L-NAcTrp crystallizes readily from aqueous solutions as a dimeric complex (two hosts enclosing two guest molecules). In contrast, crystals of the complex β-CD–D-NAcTrp were never obtained, although numerous conditions were tried. In aqueous solution, the orientation of the guest in both complexes is different than in the β-CD–L-NAcTrp …
Selective Crystallization of Dimeric vs. Monomeric Dimethyltin‐Containing Tungstoarsenates(III) and ‐antimonates(III) with the Guanidinium Cation
2009
The use of guanidinium cations [C(NH 2 ) 3 ] + as crystallizing agents allowed us to selectively isolate the dimeric [{(CH 3 ) 2 -Sn(H20)} 4 {(CH 3 ) 2 Sn}(B-β-XW 9 O 33 ) 2 ] 8- (1, X = As III ; 2, X = Sb III ) polyanions from the reaction of (CH 3 ) 2 SnCl 2 with Na 9 [B-a-XW 9 O 33 ) (3:1 ratio) in water at pH 3. This reaction is known to give the monomeric [{(CH 3 ) 2 Sn(H 2 O) 2 } 3 (B-β-XW 9 O 33 )] 3- polyanions as the major species. Polyanions 1 and 2 are composed of one octahedral trans-(CH 3 ) 2 SnO 4 moiety that bridges two trilacunary [B-β-XW 9 O 33 ] 9- Keggin subunits further decorated by two structurally nonequivalent {(CH 3 ) 2 Sn} 2+ functionalities each: one distorted octa…
Crystallization and preliminary X-ray studies of mouse centrin1.
2005
The expression, purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction studies of mouse centrin1 are reported. Centrins belong to a family of Ca{sup 2+}-binding EF-hand proteins that play a fundamental role in centrosome duplication and the function of cilia. To shed light on the structure–function relationship of these proteins, mouse centrin1 has been crystallized. The mouse centrin1 has been expressed in Escherichia coli as a GST-centrin fusion protein containing a thrombin protease cleavage site between the fusion partners. Two constructs with different linking-sequence lengths were expressed and purified. Thrombin cleavage yielded functional centrin1 and N-terminally extended …