Rapid crystallization from acoustically levitated droplets

This paper reports on an ultrasonic levitation system developed for crystallization from solution in a containerless condition. The system has been proven to be able to levitate droplets stably and grow crystals rapidly and freely from a levitated droplet. Crystals of four samples, including NaCl, N...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2012-04, Vol.131 (4), p.3164-3172
Main Authors: Cao, Hui-Ling, Yin, Da-Chuan, Guo, Yun-Zhu, Ma, Xiao-Liang, He, Jin, Guo, Wei-Hong, Xie, Xu-Zhuo, Zhou, Bo-Ru
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties
Drops and bubbles
Equations of state, phase equilibria, and phase transitions
Exact sciences and technology
Fluid dynamics
Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications)
Nonhomogeneous flows
Physics
Solid-liquid transitions
Specific phase transitions
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Summary:This paper reports on an ultrasonic levitation system developed for crystallization from solution in a containerless condition. The system has been proven to be able to levitate droplets stably and grow crystals rapidly and freely from a levitated droplet. Crystals of four samples, including NaCl, NH 4 Cl, lysozyme, and proteinase K, were obtained successfully utilizing the system. The studies showed that the crystals obtained from the acoustically levitated droplets all exhibited higher growth rates, larger sizes, better shapes, fewer crystals, as well as fewer twins and shards, compared with the control on a vessel wall. The results indicated that containerless ultrasonic levitation could play a key role in improving the crystallization of both inorganic salts and proteins. The ultrasonic levitation system could be used as a ground-based microgravity simulation platform, which could swiftly perform crystallization and screening of crystallization conditions for space crystallization and other ground-based containerless techniques. Moreover, the approach could also be conveniently applied to researching the dynamics and mechanism of crystallization. In addition, the device could be used for the preparation of high-purity materials, analysis of minute or poisonous samples, study of living cells, environmental monitoring, and so on.
ISSN:0001-4966
1520-8524
DOI:10.1121/1.3688494