Small Crystals, Big Insights: How Electron Diffraction is Transforming Materials, Life Science, and Chemistry Research #1. Introduction: How MicroED Is Reshaping Materials, Life Science, and Chemistry Research

Has your research ever been significantly slowed down or even halted because you could not establish what a compound exactly was, what its molecular structure or absolute configuration was, whether polymorphs or impurities coexisted with the main compound or how the solid-state structure could explain a compound’s behavior and physical properties?

Critical to answer these questions is the information about the crystalline state (unit cell parameters and crystal structure). Unfortunately, traditional analytical methods may not be able to deliver all the answers. Even X-ray crystallography can be limiting if samples with suitable crystallinity, dimensions and quantity are lacking. Electron diffraction offers a new solution by providing high-resolution structural insights from submicron-size samples. Scratching the bottom of a beaker to gather nanograms of a crystalline powder may suffice for electron diffraction study.

In this episode, we will review how electron diffraction is reshaping research in fields such as pharmaceuticals, metal-organic frameworks, synthetic chemistry and materials science by solving crystal structures that were previously unsolvable, screen hundreds of crystallization conditions and automate polymorphs and impurities identification and quantification over thousands of tiny crystals.

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