![]() The National Electron Diffraction Facility will open to academic and commercial partners in July 2023. ’There are overlaps that are still to be exploited between those working in electron crystallography, gas electron diffraction and various forms of electron microscopy – including cryo-EM.’ ‘Electron beams can be very versatile, and one additional benefit could be around further development and commercialisation of interesting electron sources,’ he says. Wann thinks the facility could open up other opportunities too. ‘This will revolutionise our understanding of the structure of many economically important materials including pharmaceuticals, catalysts, batteries and energy storage materials leading to breakthroughs in these areas.’ ‘This exciting new instrument will enable us to study many crystalline materials that previously were difficult or impossible to grow into suitably sized crystals to be measured by x-ray diffraction techniques,’ says David Walker, project lead at the University of Warwick. As the user interface and software of the new diffractometers is exactly the same as the x-ray diffraction systems currently used at the NCS, the transition to electron diffraction should be simple. These will be housed in refurbished laboratories in Southampton and Warwick, which will also include sample preparation facilities and space for visiting researchers to work and integrate with the NCS team. The new facility will feature two of the world’s first dedicated XtaLAB Synergy-ED diffractometers produced by instrument manufacturer Rigaku. ‘The complementary use of electron diffraction will allow the tiniest of crystals to be studied and this is particularly exciting in our quest to understand novel materials.’ ‘It’s really pleasing to see the EPSRC investing further in the National Crystallography Service,’ comments Derek Wann, an electron diffraction expert at the University of York. When an electron beam is fired at a sample, the crystal lattice of the material scatters the electrons to produce a diffraction pattern, which reveals the structural orientation of atoms in the sample. ‘This new facility provides a step-change in structure analysis, not just to samples that only grow tiny crystals, but also to whole sub-disciplines such as solid state chemistry, MOFs etc where before only very limited characterisation was possible.’Įlectron diffraction characterises crystal structures much like x-ray diffraction – the gold standard for structure determination – except it uses an electron beam instead of x-rays. ‘Historically, the NCS has really pushed the boundaries of what is possible by x-ray crystallography,’ says Simon Coles, a structural chemist and project lead for the University of Southampton site. For powder diffraction, there are two conventional powder instruments and one instrument, the Rigaku R-Axis Spider, which can be used for both powder diffraction and room temperature single crystal diffraction.The University of Warwick’s Richard Beanland (right) with Simon Coles (left), who will head up the Southampton arm of the UK’s new electron diffraction centre Each has its own low-temperature controller to collect data in a nitrogen atmosphere at reduced temperatures. Time-of-flight spectra were recorded during rotation () of the single crystals about a vertical axis perpendicular to the incident neutron beam. ![]() A) Find the energy in electron volts for a particle with. There are three single crystal diffractometers. In this work, validation of this new technique is presented by employing experimental neutron transmission and diffraction measurements performed on two copper single-crystal specimens. For crystal diffraction experiments, wavelengths on the order of 0.200 nm are often appropriate. The department houses seven X-ray diffractometers. Non-UT users should contact the X-ray lab manager for instructions on how to submit samples via email. Samples may be submitted for analysis to the lab manager ( X-ray submission form) or, upon completion of the instrument training course and the University’s radiation safety training course ( OH-306) and general lab safety requirements ( OH-101 and OH-201), individual users can run their own samples. The X-ray lab has a variety of equipment for both single crystal and powder X-ray diffraction experiments. The X-ray diffraction lab is a multi-functional facility that services the needs of the UT Austin scientific community. Department of Chemistry X-ray Diffraction Facility
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