Scientific success

World-class centre for single crystal electron diffraction will be UK first

A new centre based jointly at the University of Southampton and the University of Warwick will draw on expertise from two world-class universities and become a game changer for chemical industries, including manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and electronics.

The National Electron Diffraction Facility, part of the National Crystallography Service

(NCS), will be the first in the UK and the first national facility in the world. Using electrons instead of conventional X-ray crystallography, scientists will be able to investigate and determine the structure of much smaller crystals than previously possible. This will enable the design of new and improved materials in several economically important areas including batteries, catalysts, energy storage materials, solar cells, pharmaceuticals and more, speeding up work on the green transition.

Thanks to a £3.2 million research grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and support from global market leader Rigaku, the centre of excellence for electron diffraction will be open for academic and commercial partners in July 2023.

Dr. David Walker is Facility Manager of the X-ray Diffraction Research Technology Platform and project lead at the University of Warwick. He led Warwick to success in a prestigious award and was keen to ensure the facility provided posts for research technical professionals, who will provide the dedicated expertise to underpin the effective sharing of this groundbreaking technology. He said: “This exciting new instrument will enable us to study many crystalline materials that previously were difficult or impossible to grow into suitably sized crystals to be measured by the gold standard X-ray diffraction techniques. This will revolutionise our understanding of the structure of many economically important materials.”

Simon Coles, Professor of Structural Chemistry and project lead for the University of Southampton site, said: “Historically, the NCS has really pushed the boundaries of what is possible by X-ray crystallography. In a tremendously exciting development, we will massively expand the technique through partnering with Warwick and Rigaku to create an integrated electron diffraction facility. By using electrons rather than X-rays, this new facility takes us to a world where we can transform structural analysis by moving from studying microcrystals to nanocrystals.” www.warwick.ac.uk www.southampton.ac.uk

TURN BACK TO PAGES 30-33 to read about girls learning about STEM at St Catherine’s School, Bramley