XtalController

Cryo protection

Glycerol, for example, is a highly viscous and hygroscopic substance, so when a crystal comes into contact with an interface with a high concentration of glycerol, the solvent content of the crystal is attracted by it and leaves the crystal lattice. As water has a higher mobility, it moves towards the glycerol faster than glycerol can enter the crystal. This often leads to disorder of the outer layers of the crystal lattice, sometimes even to cracking of the crystal. Avoiding the osmotic shock by a very gentle titration of glycerol in pl steps over a period of several hours prevents such effects. The result is diffraction images with mosaicity parameters comparable to those obtained at room temperature.

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