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Nature 443, 641 (12 October 2006) | doi:10.1038/443641a; Published online 11 October 2006
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Physical chemistry: Seeds of phase change
Daan Frenkel1
Abstract
An effective but counter-intuitive trick to obtain highly ordered protein crystals is to 'seed' particles on disordered, porous surfaces. Computer simulations provide an explanation for the success of this strategy.
The highly ordered, three-dimensional arrays of molecules that we know as crystals can form spontaneously from the disordered liquid phase. To speed up the rate of crystal formation, crystal-growers often use 'seeds' — templates that can kick-start crystallization.
- Daan Frenkel is at the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics, Kruislaan 407, 1098SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Email: frenkel@amolf.nl
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