Laboratory equipment

The X-Ray diffraction facility at Technion offers single crystal X-Ray data collection, structure solution, and refinement of small molecule structures.

The small-molecule X-ray laboratory is housed in the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry building and equipped with two diffractometers: Nonius Kappa CCD and Bruker APEX II DUO CCD, both equipped with an Oxford AD51 Dry air unit series Cryostream system with low temperatures. Measurements are carried out using MoKa radiation.

A Nikon Model C-LEDS microscope is used to view and mount crystals. The laboratory provides small molecule crystal structure determinations of small molecules (organic, inorganic and organometallic). X-ray structure analysis of small molecules is conducted primarily on single crystals submitted by students in the department. As an extension service, the facility also accepts sample submissions from other departments within the Technion and from research organizations outside the Technion.

Service

The X-Ray Crystallography Lab operates on 5 days per week schedule (7.30– 15.30) Service is provided for all aspects of small molecule crystallography:

  • Sample examination and evaluation (optical and diffraction)
  • Data collection and reduction
  • Structure solution and refinement
  • Presentation graphics preparation
  • Preparation of tables and cif files for publication
  • File submission to the Cambridge Structural Database™
  • Crystals with 0.3-0.5 mm for each dimension are most often required for organic compounds. Turn around time is highly dependent on crystal quality and size.

For crystals that are relatively air/moisture/temperature sensitive, we use an Oxford AD51 Dry air unit series Cryostream system, generating a cold N2 stream. The dewar, which is filled with liquid N2, contains a copper coil aiming at cooling the input gas (room-temperature N2 stream). The output gas (cold N2 stream) is then directed onto the mounting stage of the microscope in order to prevent crystal decomposition.