Microfluidic Cell for Studying the Precrystallization Stage Structure of Protein Solutions by Small-Angle X-Ray Scattering

A microfluidic cell has been developed for studying the structure of protein solutions using small-angle X-ray scattering. The use of prefabricated elements, which provide a small sample volume, allows one to adjust the microfluidic cell parameters to specific problems. Tests of lysozyme solutions were performed on a laboratory diffractometer AMUR-K (Institute of Crystallography, Russian Academy of Sciences), BM29 beamline (ESRF, Grenoble), and "DICSY" beamline of the Kurchatov synchrotron radiation source (National Research Centre "Kurchatov Institute"). Experiments showed that, when a 60-μm-thick quartz glass of special purity grade is applied as an X-ray-transparent window, the intrinsic level of cell background scattering in the range of measured angles is lower than that for quartz capillaries, due to which the measurement accuracy can be increased.