Open AccessThe development of Laue techniques for single‐pulse diffraction of chemical complexes: time‐resolved Laue diffraction on a binuclear rhodium metal‐organic complex
Author(s) -
Makal Anna,
Trzop Elzbieta,
Sokolow Jesse,
Kalinowski Jaroslaw,
Benedict Jason,
Coppens Philip
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
acta crystallographica section a
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1600-5724
pISSN - 0108-7673
DOI - 10.1107/s0108767311011883
Subject(s) - rhodium , diffraction , monochromatic color , crystal (programming language) , excited state , x ray crystallography , laser , chemistry , excitation , metal , single crystal , resolution (logic) , optics , crystallization , crystallography , materials science , physics , atomic physics , catalysis , quantum mechanics , biochemistry , organic chemistry , artificial intelligence , computer science , programming language
A modified Laue method is shown to produce excited‐state structures at atomic resolution of a quality competitive with those from monochromatic experiments. The much faster data collection allows the use of only one or a few X‐ray pulses per data frame, which minimizes crystal damage caused by laser exposure of the samples and optimizes the attainable time resolution. The method has been applied to crystals of the α‐modification of Rh 2 (μ‐PNP) 2 (PNP) 2 (BPh 4 ) 2 [PNP = CH 3 N(P(OCH 3 ) 2 ) 2 , Ph = phenyl]. The experimental results show a shortening of the Rh—Rh distance in the organometallic complex of 0.136 (8) Å on excitation and are quantitatively supported by quantum‐mechanical (QM)/molecular‐mechanics (MM) theoretical calculations which take into account the confining effect of the crystal environment, but not by theoretical results on the isolated complex, demonstrating the defining effect of the crystal matrix.