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Mounting of crystals for macromolecular crystallography in a free‐standing thin film
Author(s) -
Teng T.Y.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of applied crystallography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.429
H-Index - 162
ISSN - 1600-5767
DOI - 10.1107/s0021889890005568
Subject(s) - crystallization , materials science , diffraction , macromolecule , crystal (programming language) , thin film , crystallography , optics , nanotechnology , chemistry , physics , computer science , biochemistry , organic chemistry , programming language
A method for mounting single crystals in macromolecular crystallographic studies is described in which the crystal is suspended in a thin film. The film is formed from a mixture of the crystallization buffer and a hydrophilic viscous material, confined within a thin‐wire loop by surface tension. Compared with conventional crystal mounting methods, this method greatly simplifies and speeds the mounting procedure, is well suited to shock freezing and to optical monitoring of the crystals, deforms fragile crystals less and gives a lower and more uniform background in the X‐ray diffraction patterns.