Work

Crystallization of l-alanine in the presence of additives on a circular PMMA platform designed for metal-assisted and microwave-accelerated evaporative crystallization

Year: 2012

Type: article

Abstract: Crystallization of l-alanine in the presence of l-valine and l-tryptophan additives on a circular poly(methyl) methacrylate (PMMA) platform designed for Metal-Assisted and Microwave-Accelerated Evaporative Crystallization (MA-MAEC) technique was investigated. Theoretical simulations predicted homogeneous temperature and electric field distributions across the circular PMMA platforms during microwave heating. Crystallization of l-alanine with and without additives on the blank and silver nanoparticle films (SNFs) modified sides of the circular PMMA platform occurred within 32-50 min using MA-MAEC technique, while the identical solutions crystallized within 161-194 min at room temperature. Optical microscopy studies revealed that l-alanine crystals without additives were found to be smaller in size and had several well-developed faces, whereas l-alanine crystals grown with additives appeared to be larger and had only one dominant highly-developed face. Raman spectroscopy and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements showed that all l-alanine crystals had identical peaks, despite the morphological differences between the l-alanine crystals with and without additives observed by optical microscope images.

Source: CrystEngComm

DOI: 10.1039/c2ce26363g

Authors: Anginelle M. Alabanza, Muzaffer Mohammed, Kadir Aslan

Institutions: The College of New Jersey, 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

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