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Rapid Structure Determination of Microcrystalline Molecular Compounds Using Electron Diffraction
Author(s) -
Gruene Tim,
Wennmacher Julian T. C.,
Zaubitzer Christan,
Holstein Julian J.,
Heidler Jonas,
FecteauLefebvre Ariane,
De Carlo Sacha,
Müller Elisabeth,
Goldie Kenneth N.,
Regeni Irene,
Li Teng,
SantisoQuis Gustavo,
Steinfeld Gunther,
Handschin Stephan,
van Genderen Eric,
van Bokhoven Jeroen A.,
Clever Guido H.,
Pantelic Radosav
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201811318
Subject(s) - microcrystalline , diffractometer , electron crystallography , crystallography , crystal structure , resolution (logic) , electron diffraction , diffraction , materials science , transmission electron microscopy , crystal (programming language) , chemistry , nanotechnology , optics , physics , computer science , programming language , artificial intelligence
Chemists of all fields currently publish about 50 000 crystal structures per year, the vast majority of which are X‐ray structures. We determined two molecular structures by employing electron rather than X‐ray diffraction. For this purpose, an EIGER hybrid pixel detector was fitted to a transmission electron microscope, yielding an electron diffractometer. The structure of a new methylene blue derivative was determined at 0.9 Å resolution from a crystal smaller than 1×2 μm 2 . Several thousand active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) are only available as submicrocrystalline powders. To illustrate the potential of electron crystallography for the pharmaceutical industry, we also determined the structure of an API from its pill. We demonstrate that electron crystallography complements X‐ray crystallography and is the technique of choice for all unsolved cases in which submicrometer‐sized crystals were the limiting factor.