FRACTAL GROWTH AND MORPHOLOGICAL TRANSITIONS DURING CRYSTALLIZATION OF AMINO ACIDS IN PRESENCE OF GLUCOSE

Two-dimensional fractal and spherulitic patterns have been developed on microslides during the crystallization of amino acids in the absence and presence of glucose and agar-agar from their aqueous solutions. Lysine crystallized uniformly in the form of ringed spherulite, but in the presence of glucose it crystallized in the form of branched morphologies. Dependence of glucose concentrations on morphology of glutamic acid has also been studied. Morphology of glutamic acid was found to depend on glucose concentration. Due to interaction between glutamic acid and glucose, following morphological transitions were observed depending on glucose concentrations: spherulite -> ringed spherulite -> Fractal geometry -> DLA-like pattern (D approximate to 1.725). Growth morphologies were characterized by measuring the location of bands (x(n)) as a function of band number n obeying the relation x(n) = mn + c, where m and n are slope and intercept respectively, and calculating the fractal dimension at different conditions. Influence of agar-agar on the morphology was also studied. Results showed that branched morphologies were more dominant in the presence of agar-agar. In case of glycine, irregular growth patterns were observed. Interaction between amino acids and glucose was studied by viscosity measurements. It has been inferred that interaction is maximum in case of interaction of glucose with glutamic acid (acidic) and minimum in case of glycine (neutral).