[naalya]

Hi,
i remember performing a crystallisation method during my (failed, due to several reasons) time as a PhD student:

the substances we synthesized were pyrophoric complexes of late transition metals with a organic ligand (working under argon atmosphere, Schlenk technique, gloveboxes etc.). to do XRD we obviously needed single crystals.

this always was a tough thing; we used a method we called 'vapor diffusion' (or in german 'gasphasendiffusion'):
putting a very small vial with a concentrated solution of our compound into a larger vial, containing a solvent which would not solve the compound. the outter vial was sealed. over time, the solvent in the larger vial would diffuse into the concentrated solution in the inner vial and crystallisation was observed.

i'm looking for literature and experiences on this method. i'm not sure if i'm using the correct keywords in my search on the internet; i'm mostly finding information about the 'sitting drop' method (used for protein crystallisation).

maybe someone here has any hints for me?