Growing L-Glutamine & Beta Alanine crystals

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Don Parsons
Posts: 11
Joined: Thu Jan 30, 2014 12:58 pm
Location: Madison, Wisconsin

Growing L-Glutamine & Beta Alanine crystals

Post by Don Parsons »

I have seen some beautiful images of L-Glutamine & Beta Alanine crystals photographed with polarized light. I have tried numerous times to grow some of these crystals on a microscope slide without success. Do any of you have a technique that works?
Don Parsons

spongepuppy
Posts: 87
Joined: Mon Nov 26, 2012 11:03 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Post by spongepuppy »

Hi Don,

I assume you mean this sort of thing:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BiJWTN9AsSd/
https://www.instagram.com/p/BtyDkD4hQBG/

The proportion of the two solutes is critical to achieving these forms - I generally start from a solution of 4:1 (v/v) of beta-alanine to l-glutamine and vary concentrations until I get something that works.

Ensure that your slides are extremely clean - if they are even slightly hydrophobic the results are generally unusable.
---
Matt Inman

Harald
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Location: Steinberg, Norway
Contact:

Post by Harald »

Hi,
Thank you both for bringing this up :D
The proportion of the two solutes is critical to achieving these forms - I generally start from a solution of 4:1 (v/v) of beta-alanine to l-glutamine and vary concentrations until I get something that works.
Now I've tried this and made notes of the concentration. Hope to get something to work. At least its a good starting point :D
Kind Regards
Harald

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Radnøør
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2024 5:03 pm
Location: Poland or UK

Re: Growing L-Glutamine & Beta Alanine crystals

Post by Radnøør »

I have noticed the difference in crystal growth/shape between warm and cold solution.

Sumguy01
Posts: 1715
Joined: Mon Jan 28, 2013 11:05 pm
Location: Ketchikan Alaska USA

Re: Growing L-Glutamine & Beta Alanine crystals

Post by Sumguy01 »

Robert Berdan did a nice job of explaining this. Check out his web page.
https://www.canadiannaturephotographer. ... stals.html

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