Controlling the Morphology of Organic Crystals with Filamentous Bacteriophages

The
preparation of thiamethoxam (TMX) organic crystals with high
morphological uniformity was achieved by controlled aggregation-driven
crystallization of primitive TMX crystals and phage using the filamentous
M13 bacteriophage. The development of a regular, micrometer-sized,
tetragonal-bipyramidal crystal structure was dependent on the amount
of phage present. The phage appears to affect the supersaturation
driving force for crystallization. The phage adsorption isotherm to
TMX was well-fitted by the Satake–Yang model, which suggests
a cooperative binding between neighboring phages as well as a binding
of phage with the TMX crystal surface. This study shows the potential
of phage additives to control the morphology and morphological uniformity
of organic crystals.