In this study, we demonstrated a unique application of our Metal-Assisted and Microwave-Accelerated Evaporative Crystallization (MA-MAEC) technique for the de-crystallization of uric acid crystals, which causes gout in humans when monosodium urate crystals accumulate in the synovial fluid found in the joints of bones. Given the shortcomings of the existing treatments for gout, we investigated whether the MA-MAEC technique can offer an alternative solution to the treatment of gout. Our technique is based on the use of metal nanoparticles (i.e., gold colloids) with low microwave heating to accelerate the de-crystallization process. In this regard, we employed a two-step process; (i) crystallization of uric acid on glass slides, which act as a solid platform to mimic a bone, (ii) de-crystallization of uric acid crystals on glass slides with the addition of gold colloids and low power microwave heating, which act as “nano-bullets” when microwave heated in a solution. We observed that the size and number of the uric acid crystals were reduced by >60% within 10 minutes of low power microwave heating. In addition, the use of gold colloids without microwave heating (i.e. control experiment) did not result in the de-crystallization of the uric acid crystals, which proves the utility of our MA-MAEC technique in the de-crystallization of uric acid.

We present a comprehensive study of highthroughput crystallization of L-alanine (a model amino acid) using circular crystallization platforms (are hereafter referred to as the iCrystal plates) designed to work with the metalassisted and microwave-accelerated evaporative crystallization (MA-MAEC) technique. The iCrystal plates are constructed using a circular 21-, 95-, and 204-well design that afford for homogeneous microwave heating of all samples. In addition, the iCrystal plates were modified with metal thin films (gold, copper, silver, and nickel), which act as selective nucleation sites for selective crystallization to occur on the surface of the crystallization platforms. Silver thin films were found to be ideal for MA-MAEC applications as compared to other metal surfaces based on the observations of crystal number and size. The size and number of wells on the iCrystal plates were found to have negligible effect on the growth of L-alanine crystals, where all three iCrystal plates were found to have similar crystallization times and yield identical crystal quality. These results imply that one can employ the iCrystal plates for the crystallization of a small number of samples (with 21-well capacity) and a large number of samples (95-and 204-well capacity) with identical yields using the MA-MAEC technique.