Molecular Structure Center
The Indiana University Molecular Structure Center laboratory has a full complement of single crystal and powder diffraction equipment used to characterize crystalline materials using the techniques of X-ray crystallography. Researchers in the laboratory can determine the three-dimensional structure of nearly any material that can be crystallized.
The results of a crystallographic study is a set of atomic coordinates which locate the atoms of a molecule in the “unit cell” of the crystal. This information can then be used to generate images of the molecule and to determine distances and angles in the molecule. In addition, the data allows one to examine the packing of the molecules in the crystal – information which can often lead to understanding the properties of the material.
IUMSC Server allows rapid access to the data that are generated in the IUMSC. Nearly all of the materials studied have been synthesized or isolated by researchers from other laboratories, usually within the Indiana University system, but often from laboratories throughout the world. This server supports these researchers to access to the data as soon as the study is complete.