ABSTRACT
The purpose of this work is to determine, based on the computational model, whether a mixture of a binary liquid is capable of producing longer, thinner and faster gas-focused micro-jets, compared to the mono-constituent liquids of its components. Mixtures of water with two different alcohols, water + ethanol and water + 2-propanol, are considered. The numerical study of pre-mixed liquids is performed in the double flow focusing nozzle geometry used in sample delivery in serial femtosecond crystallography experiments. The study reveals that an optimal mixture for maximizing the jet length exists both in a water + ethanol and in a water + 2-propanol system. Additionally, the use of 2-propanol instead of ethanol results in a 34% jet length increase, while the jet diameters and velocities are similar for both mixtures. Pure ethanol and pure 2-propanol are the optimum liquids to achieve the smallest diameter and the fastest jets. However, the overall aim is to find a mixture with the longest, the smallest and the fastest jet. Based on our simulations, it appears that water + 2-propanol mixture might be slightly better than water + ethanol. This study reveals the dominant effect of liquid viscosity on the jet breakup process in a flow focusing nozzles operated under atmospheric conditions.
ABSTRACT
This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/srep44628.
ABSTRACT
Serial femtosecond crystallography requires reliable and efficient delivery of fresh crystals across the beam of an X-ray free-electron laser over the course of an experiment. We introduce a double-flow focusing nozzle to meet this challenge, with significantly reduced sample consumption, while improving jet stability over previous generations of nozzles. We demonstrate its use to determine the first room-temperature structure of RNA polymerase II at high resolution, revealing new structural details. Moreover, the double-flow focusing nozzles were successfully tested with three other protein samples and the first room temperature structure of an extradiol ring-cleaving dioxygenase was solved by utilizing the improved operation and characteristics of these devices [corrected].
