Control of solvent evaporation in hen egg white lysozyme crystallization

An investigation of the role of solvent evaporation in tetragonal lysozyme crystallization was preformed with a device that employs N 2(g) to control the evaporation of solvent from a micro-volume crystallization hanging drop. The number of crystals was found to vary with the rate at which the final supersaturation level was achieved. It was found that the more rapid the approach to supersaturation the larger the number of crystals. Accordingly, the crystals reached a smaller terminal size. Elongation of the (110) face parallel to the four-fold axis was observed with the slower evaporation rates.