Services
Several years ago, the Chemistry and GeoSciences Departments, with support from the College of Science, pooled their instrumentation and personnel in the Virginia Tech Crystallography Laboratory (VTX). All together, VTX operates five diffractometers. The Chemistry Department's diffractometer is an Oxford Diffraction Gemini equipped with dual/switchable high-power source (Cu and Mg), area detector, and low (LN2) and ultra-low (LHe) temperature capability. The Department also routinely uses the Oxford Diffraction SuperNova protein diffractometer within VTX for small-molecule structure determinations in demanding situations (e.g., small crystal size). Services provided include:
- Crystal screening and mounting, including air-sensitive samples.
- Diffraction data collection under various conditions, including temperatures as low as 15 K and pressures as high as 100 GPa.
- Structure solution, refinement, and interpretation.
- Cambridge Crystallographic Database searching.
Please note that while powder diffraction is possible using equipment within VTX, the intended use of VTX diffractometers, and the main focus of the laboratory, is structure determination of single-crystalline samples including small molecules, minerals, and proteins. Powder analyses are only conducted by special request and can only be accommodated if there are no single-crystal analyses queued.
