Xray Crystallography

The University of Southampton houses the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) X-ray crystallography service, which analyses samples from across the UK.

This national centre provides data collection and crystal structure analysis for the UK chemistry community. This involves cutting edge techniques and the use of a very high powered lab diffractometer - the UK synchrotron, Diamond.

X-ray crystallography has developed at a rapid pace in the last 20 years. In essence, the method involves placing a tiny crystal in the path of an X ray beam. As the X-ray passes through the crystal the radiation is diffracted into a pattern by the atoms that make up the molecules in the crystal structure. The diffraction pattern is like a fingerprint that identifies not only the nature of the atoms and bonds in the molecules, but also their three-dimensional arrangement. It is the only analytical method that can achieve this level of analysis in such a complete and unambiguous fashion.

The group has taken in a number of project students to work on crystallographic techniques for their degrees.

For further information please contact:
Tel: +44 (0)23 8059 6722
email: [email protected]