Microgravity Crystal Formation

Abstract

The benefits of crystallization in a microgravity environment have been documented. Herein, we update the community on the results of a retrospective meta-analysis and data curation of 507 unique crystallization experiments that have been disseminated in the literature over a broad diversity of substrates. The analysis variables in the dataset that were evaluated include individual success metrics such as size, structural improvement, improved uniformity, increased resolution limit, and improved mosaicity. The overall databases were evaluated over time and by molecular complexity. Compared to ground experiments, crystals grown in a microgravity environment continue to show improvement across all metrics evaluated. The retrospective analysis demonstrates that success rates of crystallization experiments in microgravity improved over time. There also seems to be no correlation between complexity of molecule, using molecular weight as a surrogate for complexity, and successful crystallization under microgravity conditions. The microgravity environment provides improvement to crystal fabrication across metrics utilized for evaluation and molecular types, and the datasets utilized for this investigation are excellent tools for this evaluation.