Crystallization of l-alanine in the presence of additives on a circular PMMA platform designed for metal-assisted and microwave-accelerated evaporative crystallization

Abstract

Crystallization of L-alanine in the presence of L-valine and L-tryptophan additives on a circular poly(methyl) methacrylate (PMMA) platform designed for Metal-Assisted and Microwave-Accelerated Evaporative Crystallization (MA-MAEC) technique was investigated. Theoretical simulations predicted homogeneous temperature and electric field distributions across the circular PMMA platforms during microwave heating. Crystallization of L-alanine with and without additives on the blank and silver nanoparticle films (SNFs) modified sides of the circular PMMA platform occurred within 32–50 min using MA-MAEC technique, while the identical solutions crystallized within 161–194 min at room temperature. Optical microscopy studies revealed that L-alanine crystals without additives were found to be smaller in size and had several well-developed faces, whereas L-alanine crystals grown with additives appeared to be larger and had only one dominant highly-developed face. Raman spectroscopy and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements showed that all L-alanine crystals had identical peaks, despite the morphological differences between the L-alanine crystals with and without additives observed by optical microscope images.