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.