If you let a glass of salt water stand overnight, it can leave
beautiful crystals behind. The lab equivalent of this experiment
is a common way to study the crystallization process, but
evaporation as a way to concentrate material is hard to control,
which makes these studies difficult. In the 3 March PRL,
researchers describe a new device that can increase a solution’s
concentration in a precisely managed way. The device could be
useful in laboratory studies of crystallization and other
condensation phenomena in fluids, and it may also lead to
improved samples for studies of protein structure and better
manufacturing methods for high-tech materials with microscale
structures. Molecules dissolved in water will crystallize out if
their concentration is increased to the point of saturation.
Suspensions of liquid drops or tiny particles, such as plastic
beads, will in a similar way form into solid clumps. Researchers
would like to better understand the microscale interactions
between molecules and particles that