Crystal Handling at Low Temperature*

The sample in its mother liquor is stored in an ordinary Schlenk flask as generally used in chemical laboratories. The temperature of the flask is kept at the crystallization temperature employing a suitable cooling bath. If necessary, the flushing gas may be cooled as well.

Through the neck of the flask, a small spoon is allowed to cool down in the mother liquor. A portion of crystals is scooped up and covered with cold inert oil from a syringe (if the crystals dry up very quickly this can be done even within the mother liquor). The spoon is now rapidly transferred into the cold gas-stream of the X-Temp 2 device and the crystals are applied to the cold mixture of inert oils on the microscope slide (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1: Crystal selection under a microscope at low temperature.