In collaboration with ASI we developed a fast quantum area detector. This novel detector, mounted on a transmission electron microscope, allows acquiring full 3D structural information at atomic resolution, using just a few crystals with a diameter of 0.0002 mm or less. This breakthrough allows visualizing molecular structures important for life science and pharmaceutical research, that hitherto could not be studied because of their failure to grow large crystals.
During the last months we collected a vast amount of electron diffraction patterns with our quantum electron detector at the University of Delft (The Netherlands), the University of Barcelona (Spain), the Ernst Ruska Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy (ERC) in Juelich (Germany) and the Nederlands Center for Electron Nanoscopy (NeCEN) in Leiden (The Netherlands). A selection of 3D reciprocal space reconstructions of three organic crystals; Salicylic Acid, Nicotinic Acid and Antenna Complex can be viewed below. Also an electron diffraction data set (70°) of Carbamazepine is shown.
An image of a 100nm thin Salicylic Acid crystal and its structural formula C7 H6 O3 .
The video below shows a 3D reciprocal space reconstruction of Salicyclic Acid (500x500x100nm3 ).
An image of a 200nm thin Nicotinic Acid crystal and its structural formula C6 H5 NO2 .
The video below shows a 3D reciprocal space reconstruction of Nicotinic Acid 3D (700x900x200nm3 ).
An image of an Antenna Complex crystal and its structural formula C90 H81 N3 O10 S2 .
The video below shows a 3D reciprocal space reconstruction of the Antenna Complex (200x600x150nm3 ).
An image of a 200nm thin Carbamazepine crystal and its structural formula C15 N2 OH12 .
The video below shows an electron diffraction data set of Carbemazopine (70°). The data were acquired with a quantum area detector mounted on a CM30 electron microscope at 200keV at room temperature.
The structure solution of Carbamazepine. Five data sets of rotation electron diffraction patterns were used to determine the unit cell. The structure was solved by direct methods using SHELXT and refined with SHELXL.
