Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Crystallization is the process by which solids form, where the atoms or molecules are highly organized into a structure known as a crystal. Some ways by which crystals form are precipitating from a solution, freezing, or more rarely deposition directly from a gas.
Developing protein crystals is a difficult process influenced by many factors, including pH, temperature, ionic strength in the crystallization solution, and even gravity. [3] Once formed, these crystals can be used in structural biology to study the molecular structure of the protein, particularly for various industrial or medical purposes. [4 ...
Crystallography is used by materials scientists to characterize different materials. In single crystals, the effects of the crystalline arrangement of atoms is often easy to see macroscopically because the natural shapes of crystals reflect the atomic structure. In addition, physical properties are often controlled by crystalline defects.
The above mechanism considered crystallization from the melt, which is important for injection molding of plastic components. Another type of crystallization occurs upon extrusion used in making fibers and films. In this process, the polymer is forced through, e.g., a nozzle that creates tensile stress which partially aligns its molecules. Such ...
An X-ray diffractometer is used to measure the crystal's ability to diffract waves upon being exposed to the X-ray source. [21] X-ray crystallography does not guarantee accurate performance for all virus crystals. For example, virus crystals at macromolecular size have significant limitations compared to smaller crystals. [3]
Crystals found in rocks typically range in size from a fraction of a millimetre to several centimetres across, although exceptionally large crystals are occasionally found. As of 1999 [update] , the world's largest known naturally occurring crystal is a crystal of beryl from Malakialina, Madagascar , 18 m (59 ft) long and 3.5 m (11 ft) in ...
On the other hand, a badly scratched container will result in many lines of small crystals. To achieve a moderate number of medium-sized crystals, a container which has a few scratches works best. Likewise, adding small previously made crystals, or seed crystals, to a crystal growing project will provide nucleating sites to the solution.
Crystals used in X-ray crystallography may be smaller than a millimeter across. Although crystallography can be used to characterize the disorder in an impure or irregular crystal, crystallography generally requires a pure crystal of high regularity to solve the structure of a complicated arrangement of atoms.