Centres Científics i Tecnològics UB

News

24.02.2016

Publication of “Ab initiostructure determination of nanocrystals of organic pharmaceutical compounds by electron diffraction at room temperature using a Timepix quantum area direct electron detector”

Dr. Joaquim Portillo, responsible of TEM applied to materials Technology of the CCiTUB, has participated in the article “Ab initiostructure determination of nanocrystals of organic pharmaceutical compounds by electron diffraction at room temperature using a Timepix quantum area direct electron detector”, where a Nanomegas Timepix detector has been used.
That article was recently published in the journal Acta Crystallographica A, and can be viewed at the following link [+].

The abstract of the article is:

“Until recently, structure determination by transmission electron microscopy of beam-sensitive three-dimensional nanocrystals required electron diffraction tomography data collection at liquid-nitrogen temperature, in order to reduce radiation damage. Here it is shown that the novel Timepix detector combines a high dynamic range with a very high signal-to-noise ratio and single-electron sensitivity, enabling ab initio phasing of beam-sensitive organic compounds. Low-dose electron diffraction data (∼0.013 e− Å−2 s−1) were collected at room temperature with the rotation method. It was ascertained that the data were of sufficient quality for structure solution using direct methods using software developed for X-ray crystallography (XDS, SHELX) and for electron crystallography (ADT3D/PETS, SIR2014).”