Using the Center for Crystallographic Research












Michigan State University, Department of Chemistry

Who Can Use the Facilities?

The Center is open for use by all members of the research community, both industry and academics. Questions regarding the services provided should be directed to Dr. Richard J. Staples or by e-mail staples@Chemistry.msu.edu

What do I need to bring to the crystallographer?

Good quality single crystals of the compound.

There are far too many ways one can get single crystals of a compound to list, however there are some common techniques used. These have been summarized in an article by Peter G. Jones, Chemistry in Britain, 1981, 222-225. There is a WWW site compiled by Paul Boyle ("Growing Crystal That Will Make Your Crystallographer Happy" ) which also has very good for ideas on crystal growing.

Help in growing Crystals See:

Gettting crystals Your Crystallographer will Treasure

Submission Form

Please submit a request form along with the crystals supplying all the information asked on the form. Forms are available in the laboratory or can be printed directly from the web.

Michigan State Submission form for those at Michigan State University.

General submission form for those outside Michigan State University.

Crystal Mounting

Crystal mounting (routine) is performed using the GZ6 Stereo microscope and accessories of the laboratory. Low temperature and/or sensitive crystals are handled using a variety of techniques, some of which are covered by Hakaon Hope (ACS Symposium Series No. 357, Experimental Organometallic Chemistry: A Practicum in Synthesis and Characterization, Chapter 10, "Handling of Reactive Compounds for X-ray Analysis", pp. 257-262, 1987). The user can supply properly mounted crystals or have the laboratory manager mount the crystals.

Cambridge Structural Database (CSD)

The CSD is available to Registered users of the laboratory and is accessed on the laboratory's PC and in the Departments Library. The Cambridge Structural Database contains bibliographic, 2D chemical and 3D structural results for organocarbon compounds studied by X-ray of neutron diffraction.

For more information see CSD Home Page.

Inorganic Crystal Structure Database (ICSD)

The ICSD is not available. The data base is a comprehensive compilation of crystal structure data of inorganic compounds. Distributed by GMELIN-Institut and Fiz Karlsruhe.

For more information see ICSD Welcome Page

Protein Data Bank (PDB)

The PDB is available on line Protein Data Bank. The data base is home to the single world wide repository for the processing and distribution of 3-D biological macromolecular structure data.

Questions regarding submissions should be directed to Dr. Richard J. Staples or by e-mail staples@Chemistry.msu.edu