Sector: Pharmaceuticals, agrichemicals, energy materials and many more
Our revolutionary electron diffraction technology enables structural insights where conventional crystallography is not an option, opening up new possibilities for research and development across a wide range of industry sectors.
Structural characterisation is the gold standard in describing a material and is critical to many industries including pharmaceuticals, materials and agricultural chemistry, but traditional single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD) has a major limitation in that it requires large, high-quality crystals. For many compounds, especially those that are poorly soluble or inherently disordered, growing crystals of 10 microns or more is simply not feasible.
To overcome this limitation, we have established the National Electron Diffraction Facility (NEDF), and invested in one of the first commercially available electron diffractometers (Rigaku XtaLAB Synergy-ED). This instrument enables structural analysis of nanocrystalline materials down to around 100nm. Because electrons interact more strongly with matter than X-rays, this technique allows us to extract structural information from samples previously considered intractable.
Our facility is also equipped to handle challenging materials under specialised conditions:
This powerful structural characterisation service can now be used by industry for a wide range of chemical samples that are otherwise unsuitable for traditional SCXRD. It opens the door to routine characterisation of materials that don’t crystallise well, and a wide range of inorganic and organic compounds. For industries already familiar with SCXRD, this is a seamless extension of capability; for others, it’s a new opportunity to gain structural insight where none was previously possible.
An image of a crystal, the electron diffraction (ED) pattern, and a representation of the crystal structure determined by analysis of numerous ED patterns from this crystal
Dr Daniel N Rainer
Crystallography, structural chemistry and digital chemistry
Dr Robert Bannister
Advanced crystallographic techniques, electron diffraction, inorganic synthesis, national facility coordination, and chemical analysis of air-sensitive compounds
