skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Ceramic micro-injection molded nozzles for serial femtosecond crystallography sample delivery

Journal Article · · Review of Scientific Instruments
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4936843· OSTI ID:1234709
 [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [4];  [5]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Hamburg (Germany)
  2. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Hamburg (Germany); Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)
  3. Univ. of Hamburg, Hamburg (Germany)
  4. Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Max-Planck-StraBe, Geesthacht (Germany)
  5. Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, Hamburg (Germany); Univ. of Hamburg, Hamburg (Germany); Centre for Ultrafast Imaging, Hamburg (Germany)

Serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) using X-ray Free-Electron Lasers (XFELs) allows for room temperature protein structure determination without evidence of conventional radiation damage. In this method, a liquid suspension of protein microcrystals can be delivered to the X-ray beam in vacuum as a micro-jet, which replenishes the crystals at a rate that exceeds the current XFEL pulse repetition rate. Gas dynamic virtual nozzles produce the required micrometer-sized streams by the focusing action of a coaxial sheath gas and have been shown to be effective for SFX experiments. Here, we describe the design and characterization of such nozzles assembled from ceramic micro-injection molded outer gas-focusing capillaries. Trends of the emitted jet diameter and jet length as a function of supplied liquid and gas flow rates are measured by a fast imaging system. The observed trends are explained by derived relationships considering choked gas flow and liquidflow conservation. In conclusion, the performance of these nozzles in a SFX experiment is presented, including an analysis of the observed background.

Research Organization:
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-76SF00515
OSTI ID:
1234709
Journal Information:
Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 86, Issue 12; ISSN 0034-6748
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 46 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (26)

Femtosecond X-ray protein nanocrystallography journal February 2011
Potential for biomolecular imaging with femtosecond X-ray pulses journal August 2000
Self-terminating diffraction gates femtosecond X-ray nanocrystallography measurements journal December 2011
Serial Femtosecond Crystallography of G Protein-Coupled Receptors journal December 2013
High-Resolution Protein Structure Determination by Serial Femtosecond Crystallography journal May 2012
Natively Inhibited Trypanosoma brucei Cathepsin B Structure Determined by Using an X-ray Laser journal November 2012
Native structure of photosystem II at 1.95 Å resolution viewed by femtosecond X-ray pulses journal November 2014
De novo protein crystal structure determination from X-ray free-electron laser data journal November 2013
Structure of a photosynthetic reaction centre determined by serial femtosecond crystallography journal December 2013
Visualizing a protein quake with time-resolved X-ray scattering at a free-electron laser journal August 2014
Serial time-resolved crystallography of photosystem II using a femtosecond X-ray laser journal July 2014
Simultaneous Femtosecond X-ray Spectroscopy and Diffraction of Photosystem II at Room Temperature journal February 2013
Time-resolved serial crystallography captures high-resolution intermediates of photoactive yellow protein journal December 2014
Liquid sample delivery techniques for serial femtosecond crystallography journal July 2014
Gas dynamic virtual nozzle for generation of microscopic droplet streams journal September 2008
Injector for scattering measurements on fully solvated biospecies journal March 2012
Focusing liquid microjets with nozzles journal May 2012
Revision of capillary cone-jet physics: Electrospray and flow focusing journal June 2009
Micrometer glass nozzles for flow focusing journal June 2010
Global stability of the focusing effect of fluid jet flows journal March 2011
Global and local instability of flow focusing: The influence of the geometry journal June 2010
Microfluidic liquid jet system with compatibility for atmospheric and high-vacuum conditions journal January 2014
On the validity of a universal solution for viscous capillary jets journal December 2011
Modes in flow focusing and instability of coaxial liquid–gas jets journal June 2009
The Coherent X-ray Imaging (CXI) instrument at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) journal March 2010
Lipidic cubic phase injector facilitates membrane protein serial femtosecond crystallography journal February 2014

Cited By (29)

Simulation of liquid micro-jet in free expanding high-speed co-flowing gas streams journal August 2018
Ultracompact 3D microfluidics for time-resolved structural biology journal January 2020
Mixing injector enables time-resolved crystallography with high hit rate at X-ray free electron lasers journal August 2016
3D printed nozzles on a silicon fluidic chip journal March 2019
Controlled beams of shock-frozen, isolated, biological and artificial nanoparticles journal March 2020
3D printed droplet generation devices for serial femtosecond crystallography enabled by surface coating journal August 2019
De novo protein structure determination by heavy-atom soaking in lipidic cubic phase and SIRAS phasing using serial synchrotron crystallography journal August 2018
Sample delivery for serial crystallography at free-electron lasers and synchrotrons journal January 2019
A guide to sample delivery systems for serial crystallography journal August 2019
Three-dimensional-printed gas dynamic virtual nozzles for x-ray laser sample delivery journal January 2016
Light-sheet imaging for the recording of transverse absolute density distributions of gas-phase particle-beams from nanoparticle injectors journal January 2019
Jet delivery system for Raman scattering on bio-inorganic compounds text January 2016
Rapid Sample Delivery for Megahertz Serial Crystallography at X-ray FELs text January 2018
Megahertz serial crystallography text January 2018
Double-flow focused liquid injector for efficient serial femtosecond crystallography journal March 2017
Jet delivery system for Raman scattering on bio-inorganic compounds journal November 2016
Rapid sample delivery for megahertz serial crystallography at X-ray FELs journal July 2018
3D printed nozzles on a silicon fluidic chip text January 2019
Ultracompact 3D microfluidics for time-resolved structural biology text January 2020
Megahertz serial crystallography journal October 2018
Rapid sample delivery for megahertz serial crystallography at X-ray FELs text January 2018
Ultracompact 3D microfluidics for time-resolved structural biology text January 2020
Megahertz serial crystallography text January 2018
De novo protein structure determination by heavy-atom soaking in lipidic cubic phase and SIRAS phasing using serial synchrotron crystallography text January 2018
Light-sheet imaging for the recording of transverse absolute density distributions of gas-phase particle-beams from nanoparticle injectors text January 2019
Controlled beams of shock-frozen, isolated, biological and artificial nanoparticles text January 2020
Laser-induced acoustic desorption of thermally stable and unstable biomolecules preprint January 2018
Dripping, jetting and tip streaming preprint January 2019
Controlled beams of shockfrozen, isolated, biological and artificial nanoparticles preprint January 2019