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Metal-Assisted and Microwave-Accelerated Evaporative Crystallization: Application to l -Alanine

Year: 2011

Type: article

Abstract: L-Alanine is an important amino acid that plays a key role in the molecular structure of many proteins. Crystallized forms of this molecule are currently in high demand in chemical, pharmaceutics, and food industries. However, the traditional evaporative crystallization method takes up to several hours to complete and does not always consistently yield usable crystals. Using the metal-assisted and microwave-accelerated evaporative crystallization (MA-MAEC) technique, larger and better-organized L-alanine crystals were formed in a fraction of the time using room temperature crystallization. This technique may be applicable to organic molecules other than amino acids and thus will be able to produce the large amount of molecular crystals desired by industries today.

Source: Crystal Growth & Design

DOI: 10.1021/cg201018j

Authors: Anginelle M. Alabanza, Kadir Aslan

Institution: Morgan State University

Language: English

Topic: Crystallization and Solubility Studies

Subfield: Materials Chemistry

Field: Materials Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering

Award: Ultra Fast and Sensitive Fluorescence-Based Clinical Assays