Experimental evidence on the sustainability of crystallographic and chiral symmetry of L-alanine under dynamic shocked conditions

Abstract

Over the years, crystallographic phase transitions of the polar and non-polar amino acids under static high-pressure-temperature conditions have been well documented, especially after the development of the diamond anvil cell techniques. In contrast, the crystallographic structural science of such primary amino acids under dynamic shocked conditions is still to be explored substantially as it is in a premature stage which requires being loaded with a few possible deep insights whereby exploring the structural kinetics could be a reality. In the present context, we have performed the acoustic shock wave recovery experiment on non-polar amino acid of L-Alanine powder samples such that X-ray diffraction (XRD) and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopic techniques have been enabled to investigate the structural and chiral stability under shocked conditions. Based on the observed results, it is observed that the crystallographic structure with the P212121 space group and the same chirality is maintained even at the 200-shocked condition with a transient pressure of 2.0 MPa. The observed dynamic shock wave loading structural stability outcome is identified to be well-matched with the previous static high-pressure compression results.