UK X-Ray Services


A comprehensive structure service:

If your crystals are too problematic for your local crystallography laboratory, there is an excellent chance that we can help.

Crystals should be submitted with as much information as possible. Although it is often straightforward for us to solve a structure completely without prior knowledge, it helps if the approximate formula is available. Often it is as useful to know the starting materials as it is the intended product. To submit crystals, please use the submission form (or this editable version). If you have a preferred numbering scheme, be sure to include it.

For most structures we can and will outperform other laboratories. We routinely tackle recalcitrant problems that have thwarted success elsewhere. To enquire, please contact the Facility Director.

We have extensive experience with the following:

• Highly reactive and unstable compounds.

• Delicate and sensitive crystals.

• Radiation sensitive materials.

• Exceedingly small crystals.

• Low-temperature techniques.

• Disorder of all types.

• Twinning of all types.

• Absolute structure determination of light-atom compounds.

• Polymorphism, modulation, phase transitions, and pseudosymmetry.

• Databases, informatics, and data mining.

A typical structure determination involves:

• Sample inspection with a polarizing microscope.

• Crystal mounting and centering.

• Unit cell indexing.

• Data collection.

• Data integration, scaling, and merging.

• Structure solution and refinement.

• Creation of tables in CIF and other formats.

• Publication-ready ellipsoid and packing plots.

Outreach services provided by X-Ray Facility personnel:

• Laboratory tours for undergraduates and high-schoolers.

• Guest lectures on crystallographic methods.

• Workshops and 'how-to' sessions.

• Structure determinations for undergraduate institutions in KY.

Tutorials etc.