Abstract
We have studied the effect of salts, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and glycoprotein on the growth of huge right-handed spiral crystals of potassium dichromate (K2Cr2O7) in gelatin gel. These materials are known to induce, respectively, amorphous, short-range and long-range arrangements of collagen macromolecules that constitute the gelatin-gel network. It was revealed that both salts and ATP have a clear tendency to reduce the spiral growth of K2Cr2O7, while glycoprotein strongly enhances it. These results suggest that not only the existence of collagen macromolecules with right-handed triple helix structure but also their long-range arrangement is essential for the spiral growth of K2Cr2O7.
