Study on growth mechanism of lysozyme crystal grown by batch crystallization method

The lysozyme crystals were grown by batch crystallization method. The distribution of the aggregates particles in the lysozyme solution was measured by dynamic light scattering (DLS). The growth rate of lysozyme crystal was obtained by Zeiss microscope. The experimental results showed that the dimension of aggregate particles was increased with the concentration of protein and NaCl in the solution. The aggregation reactions of lysozyme molecules in the solution were increased with time gradually and arrived at equilibrium finally. The finding indicated that the higher the concentration of protein and NaCl, the faster the growth rate of (110) face. According to kinetics of crystal growth, the formation energy of two-dimensional nucleation, a was calculated to be about 4.01 X 10(-8) J.cm(-2) based on two-dimensional nucleation mechanism.