Services

Graduate students checking the quality of the crystals under microscope

The UWaterloo X-ray Facility in the Department of Chemistry offers single crystal X-ray diffraction service for faculty and students within and outside UWaterloo campus and industry.

The UWaterloo X-ray Facility offers a variety of services:

  • Training of the UW Graduate Students and Post-docs.
  • Tips for crystal growth, not restricted only to the recrystallization of soluble solid, e.g., organic compounds, but including growth from melt, vapour etc., for inorganic and solid-state compounds.
  • Examining the samples and the quality of the crystals under optical and polarization microscopes.
  • Preparation of the experiment, especially for air and moisture sensitive materials.
  • Mounting and centering the crystal on the goniometer.
  • Scanning the quality of the crystals.
  • Unit cell determination.
  • Full data collection of the single crystal diffraction data with high resolution.
  • Data reduction including an absorption correction.
  • Determination of the space group
  • Structure solution and refinement
  • Figures and tables of the crystallographic data.