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STRUCTURE DETERMINATION

Big insights from tiny crystals

Nature Chemistry volume 11, pages 106–108 (2019)Cite this article

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Most compounds form crystals so small that scientists cannot experimentally determine their atomic structures using X-ray crystallography. Microcrystal electron diffraction now provides a unique solution for this challenge.

Modern chemistry routinely requires the investigator to obtain atomic resolution structures of their molecules of interest. These are used to validate preliminary theoretical models, as well as to explain the molecule’s chemical and physical properties — information that is invaluable to a diverse range of fields, such as drug design and the development of new materials. Several methods have been developed over the past century to facilitate this, with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and X-ray crystallography gaining particular prominence.

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Fig. 1: Setup showing how electron diffraction can be used to solve the atomic structure of microcrystalline powder components.

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  1. Department of Structural Biochemistry, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology, Dortmund, Germany

    Oleg Sitsel & Stefan Raunser

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  1. Oleg Sitsel
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  2. Stefan Raunser
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Correspondence to Stefan Raunser.

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Sitsel, O., Raunser, S. Big insights from tiny crystals. Nature Chem 11, 106–108 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-019-0211-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-019-0211-3

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