Spherulites are spherical clusters of radiating crystals that occur naturally in rhyolitic obsidian. The growth of spherulites requires diffusion and uptake of crystal forming components from the host rhyolite melt or glass, and rejection of non-crystal forming components from the crystallizing region. Water concentration profiles measured by synchrotron-source Fourier transform spectroscopy re...

A comprehensive modeling and simulation study of the first-order isotropic/smectic-A transition is presented and applied to phase diagram computation and two-dimensional spherulite growth. An approach based on nonlinear optimization, that incorporates experimental data (from 12CB, dodecyl-cyanobiphenyl), is used to determine physically realistic model parameters. These parameters are then used ...

Spherulites are spherical clusters of radiating crystals that occur naturally in rhyolitic obsidian. The growth of spherulites requires diffusion and uptake of crystal forming components from the host rhyolite melt or glass, and rejection of non-crystal forming components from the crystallizing region. Water concentration profiles measured by synchrotron-source Fourier transform spectroscopy re...

Rhyolitic obsidians from Krafla volcano, Iceland, record the interaction between mobile hydrous species liberated during crystal growth and the reduction of ferric iron in the silicate melt. We performed synchrotron μ-FTIR and μ-XANES measurements along a transect extending from a spherulite into optically distinct colorless and brown glass zones. Measurements show that the colorless glass is e...

A Landau-de Gennes model that integrates the nematic quadrupolar tensor order parameter and complex smectic-A order parameters is used to simulate the two-dimensional growth of an initially homogeneous smectic-A spherulite in an isotropic matrix. These simulations are performed in the shape-dynamic (nano-scale) regime of growth under two material conditions: isotropic nematic elasticity and equ...

While seeking conditions for single crystals of human alpha-L-iduronidase, solutions were discovered (pH 3.0-8.5 containing calcium or zinc salts) that transform soluble alpha-L-iduronidase to a solid aggregate. This aggregate is a spherulite of semi-crystalline protein. The X-ray diffraction pattern and ability to bind Congo red characterize the alpha-L-iduronidase spherulite as 'amyloid-like'...

Insulin is a hormone with a molecular weight of 5.7 kDa, that is composed of two polypeptide chains. In the native state, its secondary structure is primarily αhelical. However, forms a spherical precipitate called spherulite (Fig. 1), which is made of β-amyloid fibrils (Fig. 2), at low pHs and high temperatures (pH 2.0 and 37 100 oC). No chemical modification is involved in the assembly of ins...