Abstract
There is increasing evidence that large classes of colloid materials crystallize via a non-standard nucleation mechanism involving intermediate metastable phases. In this paper recent work on the microscopic derivation of the phase diagram and free energy barriers in the nucleation of protein crystals, and on the kinetics of growth of solid particles in the post-nucleation regime is reviewed. The extent to which combined structural and density fluctuation give rise to favourable crystallization pathways involving an intermediate fluid phase is assessed and the connection with experiments in microgravity at ISS (PROMISS-2 and NANOSLAB-2) is discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, V.J., Lekkerkerker, H.N.W.: Insights into phase transition kinetics from colloid science. Nature 416, 811 (2002)
Basios, V.: Self-organization and nonequilibrium aggregation phenomena in colloidal matter: why microgravity matters. Int. J. Bifurc. Chaos 16(6), 1689–1700 (2006)
Descombes, S., Dumont, T., Louvet, V., Massot, M.: On the local and global errors of splitting approximations of reaction-diffusion equations with high spatial gradients. Int. J. Comput. Math. 84, 6 (2007) (Special Issue on Splitting Methods for Differential Equations)
Evrard, C., Maes, D., Zegers, I., Declercq, J.-P., Vanhee, C., Martial, J., Wyns, L., Van de Weerdt, C.: TIM crystal grown by capillary counter-diffusion: statistical evidence of quality improvement in microgravity. Cryst. Growth Des. 7, 2161–2166 (2007)
Filobelo, L.F., Galkin, O., Vekilov, P.G.: Spinodal for the solution-to-crystal phase transformation. J. Chem. Phys. 123, 014904 (2005)
Garza-López, R.A., Bouchard, P., Nicolis, G., Sleutel, M., Brzezinski, J., Kozak, J.J.: Kinetics of docking in postnucleation stages of self-assembly. J. Chem. Phys. 128, 114701 (2008)
Gliko, O., Neumair, N., Pan, W., Haase, I., Fisher, M., Bacher, A., Weinkauf, S., Vekilov, P.G.: A metastable prerequisite for the growth of lumazine synthase crystals. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 127, 3433 (2005)
Hayasaka, K., Liang, D., Huybrechts, W., De Waele, B.R., Houthoofd, K.J., Eloy, P., Gaigneaux, E.M., van Tendeloo, G., Thybaut, J.W., Marin, G.B., Denayer, J.F.M., Baron, G.V., Jacobs, P.A., Kirschhock, C.E.A., Martens, J.A.: Formation of ZSM-22 zeolite catalytic particles by fusion of elementary nanorods. Chem. Eur. J. 13(36), 10070–10077 (2007)
Kozak, J.J., Basios, V., Nicolis, G.: Geometrical effects in protein nucleation. Biophys. Chem. 105, 495–500 (2003)
Kozak, J.J., Nicolis, C., Nicolis, G.: Modeling the early stages of self-assemply in nanophase materials. J. Chem. Phys. 126(154701), 1–8 (2007)
Liang, D., Follens, L.R.A., Aerts, A., Martens, J.A., VanTendeloo, G., Kirschhock, C.E.A.: TEM observation of aggregation steps in room-temperature silicalite-1 zeolite formation. J. Phys. Chem. C 111(39), 14283–14285 (2007)
Lutsko, J.F.: First principles derivation of Ginzburg-Landau free energy models for crystalline systems. Physica A 366, 229 (2006a)
Lutsko, J.F.: Properties of non-fcc hard-sphere solids predicted by density functional theory. Phys. Rev. E 74, 021121 (2006b)
Lutsko, J.F.: Ginzburg–Landau theory of the liquid–solid interface and nucleation for hard-spheres. Phys. Rev. E 74, 021603 (2006c)
Lutsko, J.F.: Density functional theory of inhomogeneous liquids. I. The liquid–vapor interface in Lennard–Jones fluids. J. Chem. Phys. 127, 054701 (2007)
Lutsko, J.F., Nicolis, G.: The effect of the range of interaction on the phase diagram of a globular protein. J. Chem. Phys. 122, 24907 (2005)
Lutsko, J.F., Nicolis, G.: Theoretical evidence of a dense-fluid precursor to crystallization. Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 046102 (2006)
Maes, D., Decanniere, K., Zegers, I., Vanhee, C., Sleutel, M., Willaert, R., Van de Weerdt, C., Martial, J., Declercq, J.-P., Evrard, C., Otalora, F., Garcia-Ruiz, J.-M.: Protein crystallisation under microgravity conditions: what did we learn on TIM crystallisation from the Soyuz missions? Microgravity Sci. Technol. (2008, in press)
Nicolis, G., Nicolis, C.: Enhancement of the nucleation of protein crystals by the presence of an intermediate phase: a kinetic model. Physica A 323, 139–154 (2003)
Nicolis, G., Nicolis, C.: Kinetics of phase transitions in the presence of an intermediate state: a generic model. Physica A 351, 22–39 (2005)
Nicolis, G., Nicolis, C.: Foundations of Complex Systems. World Scientific, Singapore (2007)
Nicolis, G., Basios, V., Nicolis, C.: Pattern formation and fluctuation-induced transitions in protein-crystallization. J. Chem. Phys. 120, 7708–7719 (2004)
Oxtoby, D.W.: Materials chemistry: crystals in a flash. Nature 420, 277 (2002)
Shiryayev, A., Gunton, J.D.: Crystal nucleation for a model of globular proteins. J. Chem. Phys. 120, 8318 (2004)
Talanquer, V., Oxtoby, D.W.: Crystal nucleation in the presence of a metastable critical point. J. Chem. Phys. 109, 223 (1998)
ten Wolde, P.R., Frenkel, D.: Enhancement of protein crystal nucleation by critical density fluctuations. Science 277, 1975 (1997)
Vekilov, P.G.: Dense liquid precursor for the nucleation of ordered solid phases from solution. Cryst. Growth Des. 4, 671 (2004)
Yau, S.-T., Vekilov, P.G.: Quasi-planar nucleus structure in apoferritin crystallisation. Nature 406, 494–497 (2000)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Basios, V., Lutsko, J., Nicolis, G. et al. A New Paradigm of Crystallization Arising from Non-standard Nucleation Pathways. Microgravity Sci. Technol 21, 47–51 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-008-9061-0
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-008-9061-0