Journal of Synchrotron Radiation (Mar 2022)

3D printed devices and infrastructure for liquid sample delivery at the European XFEL

  • Mohammad Vakili,
  • Johan Bielecki,
  • Juraj Knoška,
  • Florian Otte,
  • Huijong Han,
  • Marco Kloos,
  • Robin Schubert,
  • Elisa Delmas,
  • Grant Mills,
  • Raphael de Wijn,
  • Romain Letrun,
  • Simon Dold,
  • Richard Bean,
  • Adam Round,
  • Yoonhee Kim,
  • Frederico A. Lima,
  • Katerina Dörner,
  • Joana Valerio,
  • Michael Heymann,
  • Adrian P. Mancuso,
  • Joachim Schulz

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600577521013370
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 29, no. 2
pp. 331 – 346

Abstract

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The Sample Environment and Characterization (SEC) group of the European X-ray Free-Electron Laser (EuXFEL) develops sample delivery systems for the various scientific instruments, including systems for the injection of liquid samples that enable serial femtosecond X-ray crystallography (SFX) and single-particle imaging (SPI) experiments, among others. For rapid prototyping of various device types and materials, sub-micrometre precision 3D printers are used to address the specific experimental conditions of SFX and SPI by providing a large number of devices with reliable performance. This work presents the current pool of 3D printed liquid sample delivery devices, based on the two-photon polymerization (2PP) technique. These devices encompass gas dynamic virtual nozzles (GDVNs), mixing-GDVNs, high-viscosity extruders (HVEs) and electrospray conical capillary tips (CCTs) with highly reproducible geometric features that are suitable for time-resolved SFX and SPI experiments at XFEL facilities. Liquid sample injection setups and infrastructure on the Single Particles, Clusters, and Biomolecules and Serial Femtosecond Crystallography (SPB/SFX) instrument are described, this being the instrument which is designated for biological structure determination at the EuXFEL.

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