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Preface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2009

Michael M. Woolfson
Affiliation:
University of York
Fan Hai-Fu
Affiliation:
China University of Geosciences, Wukan
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Summary

When von Laue and his assistants produced their first smudgy X-ray diffraction photographs in Munich in 1912 they could not have known of the developments that would follow and the impact that these would have on such a wide range of science. Structural crystallography, the ability to find the arrangement of atoms inside crystals, has advanced over the years both theoretically and experimentally. Technical advances, such as the development of computers both for control of instruments and for complex calculations, and also the advent of high power synchrotron X-ray sources have all played their part.

In this book we bring together all the methods that have been and are being used to solve crystal structures. We broadly divide these methods into two main classes, non-physical and physical methods. In the first category we place those methods that depend on a single set of diffraction data produced by the normal Thomson scattering from the individual atoms. The Patterson methods and direct methods described in chapters 2 and 3 respectively are non-physical methods. In chapter 4 the basic principles are explained for two physical methods – isomorphous replacement, which combines the data from two or more related compounds to obtain phase information, and anomalous scattering, which uses data at wavelengths for which some of the atoms scatter anomalously, i.e. with an amplitude and phase differing from that given by the Thomson process. In chapter 5 the method of isomorphous replacement is explored in much greater depth and in chapter 6 the same is done for anomalous scattering.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1995

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  • Preface
  • Michael M. Woolfson, University of York, Fan Hai-Fu, China University of Geosciences, Wukan
  • Book: Physical and Non-Physical Methods of Solving Crystal Structures
  • Online publication: 24 November 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511599866.001
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  • Preface
  • Michael M. Woolfson, University of York, Fan Hai-Fu, China University of Geosciences, Wukan
  • Book: Physical and Non-Physical Methods of Solving Crystal Structures
  • Online publication: 24 November 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511599866.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Preface
  • Michael M. Woolfson, University of York, Fan Hai-Fu, China University of Geosciences, Wukan
  • Book: Physical and Non-Physical Methods of Solving Crystal Structures
  • Online publication: 24 November 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511599866.001
Available formats
×