Crystal growth method simulating microgravity condition

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention relates to a crystal growth method simulating the microgravity condition. The crystal growth method comprises the steps that a PDMS porous membrane is prepared, the prepared PDMS porous membrane is placed in a sample pool, and the sample pool is sealed; a pump is utilized to pump gas in the sample pool at the opening position of one end of the sample pool, meanwhile, a growth solution is injected into the opening position of the other end of the sample pool, and thus a small cavity of the prepared PDMS porous membrane is fully filled with the growth solution; upper layer cover glass in the sample pool is taken down, and a crystal prepared in advance is transferred into the small cavity, fully filled with the growth solution, in the prepared PDMS porous membrane; the upper part of the sample pool is re-covered with the upper layer cover glass, and the sample pool is inverted; and after the sample pool is inverted, the temperature of the sample pool is controlled to be the set temperature, the crystal grows in the small cavity fully filled with the growth solution, and the grown crystal is subjected to in-situ observation.

Description

technical field [0001] The embodiments of the present invention relate to the technical field of crystal growth, in particular to a crystal growth method for simulating microgravity conditions. Background technique [0002] Crystal growth in space microgravity environment is a new subject formed with the development of aerospace high technology. Its research goals focus on exploring the principles, methods and laws of crystal growth in the space microgravity environment, seeking ways to improve crystal properties, discovering new crystal varieties and expanding the application prospects of crystals. Microgravity conditions help grow crystals with better properties for two reasons. [0003] Reason 1: The buoyant convection generated by gravity is suppressed or disappears. As the crystal grows, the thin layer of solution around the crystal is known as the "dissipative layer". The solute molecules in the growth solution (including molecules constituting crystals, impurity mo...

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Problems solved by technology

However, the disadvantage of this technology is that the magnetic field slows down the nucleation and growth rate of protein crystals, which hinders protein crystallization. In addition, because a strong magnetic field is required to obtain the required simulated microgravity conditions, the correlation required for the experiment is limited. Equipment has high requirements

This technology utilizes the characteristics that in the very small pores formed by the gel, the Grashof number (the Grashof number is a dimensionless constant that characterizes fluid convection, the smaller the Grashof number, the smaller the fluid convection) is very small, and the buoyancy convection is basically eliminated. It greatly inhibits the buoyancy convection during the crystallization process, but the disadvantage is that some protein crystals are mixed with the gel and cannot be separated. At the same time, the presence of the gel hinders the in-situ observation of crystal growth

However, the disadvantage of this technology is that only gravity settlement is eliminated, but the suppression of buoyancy convection is very limited, and it cannot achieve a better effect of simulating microgravity conditions.

Because the change of the syringe pressure usually has a certain hysteresis to the change of the propulsion speed of the micropump, it is almost impossible to use a common micropump and a syringe to adjust the fluid flow rate to achieve rapid and accurate control of the sample droplet ratio. Therefore, this technology There are high requirements for equipment

In addition, it needs to be pointed out that when crystals are grown by microfluidic technology, the position of the crystals in the microchannel is random, and it is impossible to carry out long-term and continuous optical microscopic observation of the specified position in the microchannel, because the observed Areas where crystals are likely not present, or crystals present are of a size and shape not suitable for optical observation to obtain crystal growth kinetics data

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