**Elena Kotelnikova 1, Roman Sadovnichii 1, Lyudmila Kryuchkova <sup>1</sup> and Heike Lorenz 2,\***


Received: 4 June 2020; Accepted: 13 July 2020; Published: 16 July 2020

**Abstract:** The limits of solid solutions and thermal deformations in the L-alanine–L-serine (L-ala–L-ser) amino acid system have been determined. Thirteen amino acid mixtures with various proportions of the components L-ser/L-ala were studied using powder X-ray diffraction techniques. It was found that the regions of solid solutions in the system are rather limited and cover less than 10 mol. % from each component side. The thermal behavior of the components L-ser and L-ala and the composition L-ser/L-ala = 90/10 were studied by temperature-resolved powder X-ray diffraction. The heating of L-ser and L-ala only causes thermal deformations, while two-phase mixtures with the 90/10 L-ser/L-ala ratio form solid solutions at elevated temperatures. Additionally, the parameters of the thermal deformation tensor for L-ser and L-ala were calculated, and the figures of their thermal expansion coefficients were plotted and analyzed. The study conducted is of high applicability, since amino acids are active components of various biological, geological, and technological processes, including those at elevated temperatures, and have numerous applications in life-science industries.

**Keywords:** L-serine; L-alanine; enantiomers; isomorphic miscibility; thermal expansion; PXRD; TRPXRD
