This symposium focuses on the latest advances in crystallization and biocrystallization. The symposium will explore recent discoveries on the fundamentals of crystal nucleation, growth and assembly, from biologically-controlled to bio-inspired systems. Crystallization is a vital process in biological and materials science with countless applications, from classic cements and seashell/bone formation to perovskite solar cells and advanced electronics. Despite its long history, classical theories of crystallization are now being challenged, and the subject continues to evolve at the forefront of emerging fields in materials chemistry. Truly understanding crystallization mechanisms and how to manipulate them is a grand challenge in materials chemistry with significant potential for future developments.


The symposium is structured into four sections, with the first covering our current understanding of crystal nucleation, growth, and assembly. We will address ongoing debates in the field, such as the role of prenucleation clusters in the crystal formation and the multiple pathways involved in crystal growth or assembly. The second section will focus on biogenic crystallization and bio-inspired crystallization, discussing the use of biological strategies to control crystal morphology, orientation, and size, to produce materials with unique and desirable structures and properties. This session highlights recent exciting discoveries in biogenic organic crystallization which unlock the potential to create materials with emergent properties that have not been thought about previously. We are excited to discuss the unifying concepts underpinning biological crystallization in this section. The third section will feature interfaces for crystallization, and the last section will focus on recent advances in characterization techniques to investigate crystal formation. The state-of-the-art characterization tools have advanced the field of crystal nucleation and growth and opened up new areas of research. This section also discusses topics such as new synchrotron applications, microfluidics, and continuous and high throughput crystallization systems. We will also highlight the significant development in electron tomography and in-situ analysis.We are confident that this symposium will provide delegates with the latest insights on crystallization relevant to their research.

biological biological synthesis (assembly) biomimetic biomimetic (assembly) crystallization in situ nucleation & growth self-assembly