Why crystallization is not a chemical process if heating is involved in it?


  • Crystallisation Is a process used to separate a pure solid in the form of its crystals from a solution.

  • The crystallisation method is used to purify solids.

  • Eg: the salt we get from seawater can have many impurities in it.

  • To remove these impurities, the process of crystallisation is used

  • It involves heating of mixtures and then letting it cool down to form solids.

  • In Protein Crystallization-

  • The solubility of protein molecules is subject to many factors, especially the interaction with other compounds in solution.

  • Most proteins are soluble at physiological conditions, but as the concentration of solutes rises, the protein becomes less soluble, driving it to crystallize or precipitate. This phenomenon is known as "salting out".

  • At very low solute concentrations, proteins also become less soluble, because some solutes are necessary for the protein to remain in solution. This converse phenomenon is known as "salting in".

  • Most protein crystallization techniques form crystals by salting out the protein into crystals, although some experimental setups can produce crystals using the salting in effect.

  • Due to the molecular variations between individual proteins, conditions unique to each protein must be obtained for successful crystallization.

  • Therefore here we see that just by increasing the solute concentrated crystals can also be formed. Hence, it is a physical change.


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Updated on: 10-Oct-2022

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