Experimental Demonstration of Acoustic Shock-Wave-induced Solid-State Morphological Transformation from Irregular to Rod Shape: a Case Study of L-Tyrosine

Herein, we report a conversion of the solid-state shape of an amino acid material, namely l-tyrosine, from irregular to rod shapes as a result of its processing of acoustic shock waves, and we explain the obtained results using the concepts of dynamic recrystallization. The initial l-tyrosine sample crystallizes in the P2(1)2(1)2(1) space group with irregular shapes-but when subjected to shocks, transforms into essentially perfect rod shapes, especially when subjected to 200 shock pulses. From X-ray diffraction results, it is also found that the ratio of the intensity of the (130) peak to that of the (111) peak is significantly reduced from 3.183 to 1.298 upon subjecting the l-tyrosine sample to 200 shock pulses, with this latter value matching quite well that in the standard XRD pattern of the title sample.