Chemical Crystallography

Chemical Crystallography provides accurate and precise measurements of molecular dimensions in a way that no other science can begin to approach. Historically, single crystal X-ray diffraction was used to determine the structure of what was thought of as "small molecules". Twenty years ago, it was possible to solve structures with an average of only 100 non-hydrogen atoms. However, thanks to developments in hardware and software, the upper limit has risen to about 500 and recently, even a 1000-atom structure was solved.  Chemical crystallographers study compounds which are both of chemical and biological interest - new synthetic chemicals, catalysts, pharmaceuticals, natural products, minerals... and many more!