X-ray Crystallography

The objective of x-ray crystallography is to determine the three dimensional molecular structure from a crystal. A highly concentrated, pure material is crystallised and then subjected to an x-ray beam.

The objective of x-ray crystallography is to determine the three dimensional molecular structure from a crystal. A highly concentrated, pure material is crystallised and then subjected to an x-ray beam. The crystal scatters the X-rays onto an electrical detector, comparable to how a digital camera captures photos. The intensity of the dispersed X-rays are measured by a computer to determine the location of each atom in the crystalline molecule. The output is a computer image in three dimensions. This approach has been used to determine the structure of almost 85 percent of all known protein molecules. X-ray crystallography is currently the technique of choice for determining the structure of proteins and biological macromolecules.