About
Established in 1981, the X-ray Crystallography Laboratory provides single-crystal X-ray crystallographic services to the University of Alberta Chemistry Department.
Structures may be fully solved and refined by the staff crystallographer, or may be processed (using data collected with the facility's instruments) by research groups possessing their own crystallographic computing resources.
The crystallographer may also be consulted by our departmental clients for searches of the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) of over 1,000,000 organic and organometallic crystal structures, which has been installed on one of our Windows workstations.
The facility also manages access and training for the XRD Laboratory, which consists of one instrument: a Bruker D8 Advance powder diffractometer. This instrument belongs to Prof. Arthur Mar's research group and is available to department members.
Current waiting list:
9 samples
Status of Diffractometers:
D8 Venture: OK
D8 Duo: DOWN
PLATFORM: OK
(last updated on 5 March 2024)
Bruker D8 Venture / PHOTON III diffractometer system
Equipped with two radiation sources (Cu and Mo IuS 3.0 microfocus sources), the latest generation photon counting detector, and an Oxford Cryostream 1000 for crystal cooling capable of temperatures ranging from 80 to 400 K. System installed in June 2023.
Bruker D8 Duo diffractometer / SMART APEX II CCD area detector system
Equipped with two radiation sources (Cu microfocus source and Mo sealed-tube) and featuring a liquid-nitrogen-based crystal cooling system capable of temperatures ranging from ambient to -170 °C. System installed in 2008. Cu microfocus source added in 2011.
Bruker PLATFORM diffractometer / SMART APEX II CCD area detector system
Equipped with a sealed-tube radiation source (Mo) and featuring a liquid-nitrogen-based crystal cooling system capable of temperatures ranging from ambient to -150 °C. System installed in 1998. Detector upgraded to APEX II in 2012.
Bruker D8 Advance diffractometer
Equipped with a sealed-tube radiation source (Cu), SSD-160-2 detector, and variable temperature capabilities from room temp to 1,100 °C using the MTC-furnace non-ambient stage. System installed in 2020.
Selected publications featuring results from the X-ray Crystallography Laboratory:
M. A. Johnson, M. M. Martin, K. Cocq, N. Jux, M. J. Ferguson and R. R. Tykwinski Eur. J. Org. Chem. 2022, e202101467
B. T. Luppi, A. V. Muralidharan, M. Ostermann, I. T. Cheong, M. J. Ferguson, I. Siewert and E. Rivard Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2022, 61, e202114586
M. Z. H. Kazmi, J. P. G. Rygus, H. T. Ang, M. Paladino, M. A. Johnson, M. J. Ferguson and D. G. Hall J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 27, 10143-10156
Territorial Acknowledgement
The University of Alberta, its buildings, labs, and research stations are primarily located on the traditional territory of Cree, Blackfoot, Métis, Nakota Sioux, Iroquois, Dene, and Ojibway/Saulteaux/Anishinaabe nations; lands that are now known as part of Treaties 6, 7, and 8 and homeland of the Métis. The University of Alberta respects the sovereignty, lands, histories, languages, knowledge systems, and cultures of First Nations, Métis and Inuit nations.