Protein crystallisation has gained a new strategic and commercial relevance in the post-genomic era because of its pivotal role in structural genomics. Producing high-quality crystals has always been a bottleneck to structure determination and, with the advent of proteomics, this problem is becoming increasingly acute. The task of producing suitable crystals may be tackled using two approaches....

I have studied the effects of polydispersity on the phase behaviour of suspensions of PMMA colloidal spheres on their own and in the presence of non-adsorbed polymer. I systematically explored the volume fraction–polydispersity (φ − σ) phase behaviour of hard spheres (with radii R =167, 244, 300 and 303nm) through direct observations and crystallography measurements. I observed normal crystalli...

In this work rhamnolipids were evaluated as surfactants for the production of nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs). NLCs produced by melt-emulsification using ultra-homogenisation followed ultrasonication and different ratios medium-chain-triglycerides glycerol monostearate (lipid phase) tested. presented sizes polydispersity index values ranged between 97 120 nm 0.20–0.26, respectively. Transm...

Crystals form via nucleation followed by growth. Often nucleation data is interpreted using the classical theory of nucleation, which is essentially a simple theory for the nucleation of a fluid phase. I characterise this classical theory as making six assumptions; I discuss each assumption in turn. I then review experiments and simulations that find nucleation behaviour that cannot be describe...

The P-RoC process – the phosphorus recovery straight from the aqueous phase by crystallisation of calcium phosphate – was developed in order to simultaneously remove and recover phosphorus from municipal wasteand industrial process waters by applying calcium silicate hydrate (CSH) compounds or synthesised tobermorite pellets as crystallisation seed materials. At first, the experiments were perf...

Many effluent treatment processes result in a concentrated brine solution that requires disposal. Bulk crystallisation of the salt can facilitate this disposal, by providing a solid that can be more readily transported. In this presentation, we consider the use of ultrasound to assist in initiating the crystallisation of salt from saline effluent sourced from the Australian dairy industry. The ...

The crystallisation of struvite is one means of removing phosphate (and nitrogen) from nutrient-rich wastewater. As with all crystallisation processes, the growth rate of the crystals and its dependence on supersaturation is of considerable interest in designing processing equipment. Modelling of struvite solubility using the computer package MINTEQA2 showed that struvite exhibits a minimum sol...

Laser clad coating’s susceptibility to cracking is extremely high due the brittleness of material itself and enormous residual stress caused by rapid heating cooling. In order relieve stress, a series Fe-based amorphous-Cu composite coatings were fabricated on 20 steel using laser processing. The effects copper addition phase composition microstructure evolution then investigated. as-prepared c...