Advances in Synchrotron Radiation Applications for Crystal Structure Studies

Dear Colleagues,

Crystal structure determination using X-rays is a well-established mature discipline with important applications in chemistry, physics, biology, environmental science, materials science, medicine, and engineering. It brings together scientists from a wide range of research areas, and is generally regarded as the most definitive and exhaustive form of experimental structural characterisation. Recent years have seen major enhancements in aspects of hardware and software, greatly extending the scope and power of the technique. Possibly, the greatest changes have been seen in X-ray detector technology with the widespread introduction since the 1990s of successive types of area detectors, giving advantages in speed, sensitivity and accuracy.

X-ray source developments in the local laboratory have also been important, with improvements in intensity, stability, and the use of advanced X-ray optics. However, much greater enhancements are achieved by carrying out data collection at a storage-ring synchrotron source. This brings advantages, not only in X-ray intensity (up to several orders of magnitude), but also in beam focusing and collimation, in wavelength selection for various purposes, and potentially in exploitation of the pulsed time-structure of the incident X-ray beam. Most of these advantages have been recognised and exploited for decades by biological macromolecular crystallography researchers, but have become generally available in chemical and materials science areas only in the last 20 years. Today, numerous synchrotron beamlines offer single-crystal diffraction capabilities for so-called ‘small molecule’ applications, though only a very few are dedicated to such applications rather than being shared with other diffraction and/or spectroscopic techniques. Nevertheless, there is a growing output of synchrotron-derived crystal structures, not only of relatively stable materials but also of transient and excited states through the emerging technique of photocrystallography. Both the facilities themselves and the uses to which they are put are undergoing significant development.

This Special Issue provides a forum for reports on technical developments and their applications, and for novel research in areas of crystallography that depend on, or benefit from, the use of synchrotron facilities. Scientists working in a wide range of disciplines are invited to contribute to this collection. The topics presented in the keywords cover broadly the focus of this Special Issue, but do not restrict it, as synchrotron applications in crystallography are growing and are likely to include particular approaches that have not yet been described; innovative contributions are particularly welcomed.

Prof. Dr. William Clegg
Guest Editor

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