The XIPHOS diffraction facility for extreme sample conditions

HTD2: a single-crystal X-ray diffractometer for combined high-pressure/low-temperature experiments at laboratory scale

High-pressure (HP) X-ray diffraction experiments at low temperature (LT) require dedicated instruments as well as non-standard sample environments and measuring strategies. This is especially true when helium cryogenic temperatures below 80 K are targeted. Furthermore, only experiments on single-crystalline samples provide the prerequisites to study subtle structural changes in the p-T phase diagram under extreme LT and HP conditions in greater detail. Due to special hardware requirements, such measurements are usually in the realm of synchrotron beamlines. This contribution describes the design of an LT/HP diffractometer (HTD2) to perform single-crystal X-ray diffraction experiments using a laboratory source in the temperature range 400 > T > 2 K while applying pressures of up to 20 GPa.

Low temperature insights into the crystal and magnetic structure of a neutral radical ferromagnet

The crystal structure of the radical ferromagnet 1a at 2 K reveals a contraction in the unit cell c constant which, at the molecular level, translates into a decrease in slippage of the radical π-stacks and an increase in ferromagnetic exchange interactions along the stacking axis. The results of BS-DFT calculations using long-range corrected functionals are consistent with an overall ferromagnetic topology.

Structural studies into the spin crossover behaviour of Fe(abpt)2(NCS)2 polymorphs B and D

Crystallographic analysis of the spin-crossover behaviour of [Fe(abpt)₂(NCS)₂], polymorph B and D, is presented focusing particularly on the high pressure structures.

Reducing the background of ultra-low-temperature X-ray diffraction data through new methods and advanced materials

New methods and advanced materials that significantly reduce the background when collecting single-crystal X-ray diffraction data at ultra-low temperatures using a closed-cycle helium refrigerator are presented here. These include a magnetically controlled internal beamstop and a separate internal collimator that together completely remove the scattering contribution to the background from the beryllium vacuum chamber. Additionally, a new radiation shield made from flexible graphite significantly reduces the background and maintains excellent thermal properties. In combination these improvements have led to a sixfold reduction in the average intensity and a 15-fold reduction in peak intensity of the background observed for diffraction experiments conducted with a closed-cycle helium refrigerator. Moreover, access to ultra-low base temperatures, 2.05 K, has been maintained. The design and implementation of these methods are discussed along with a case study of vitamin C to demonstrate the effectiveness of the improvements.

A structural exploration of anisole accessed through extreme crystallisation conditions

A novel high pressure polymorph of anisole has been discovered and investigated with respect to the known low temperature form.

Structural and spectroscopic characterisation of the spin crossover in [Fe(abpt)2(NCS)2] polymorph A

Crystallographic, UV-Vis, RUS and strain analysis studies of thermal spin crossover in [Fe(abpt)₂(NCS)₂] polymorph A are presented alongside LIESST and high pressure structures.

Effect of pressure on methylated glycine derivatives: relative roles of hydrogen bonds and steric repulsion of methyl groups

Infinite head-to-tail chains of zwitterions present in the crystals of all amino acids are known to be preserved even after structural phase transitions. In order to understand the role of the N-H...O hydrogen bonds linking zwitterions in these chains in structural rearrangements, the crystal structures of the N-methyl derivatives of glycine (N-methylglycine, or sarcosine, with two donors for hydrogen bonding; two polymorphs of N,N-dimethylglycine, DMG-I and DMG-II, with one donor for hydrogen bond; and N,N,N-trimethylglycine, or betaine, with no hydrogen bonds) were studied at different pressures. Methylation has not only excluded the formation of selected hydrogen bonds, but also introduced bulky mobile fragments into the structure. The effects of pressure on the systems of the series were compared with respect to distorting and switching over hydrogen bonds and inducing reorientation of the methylated fragments. Phase transitions with fragmentation of the single crystals into fine powder were observed for partially methylated N-methyl- and N,N-dimethylglycine, whereas the structural changes in betaine were continuous with some peculiar features in the 1.4-2.9 GPa pressure range and accompanied by splitting of the crystals into several large fragments. Structural rearrangements in sarcosine and betaine were strongly dependent on the rate of pressure variation: the higher the rate of increasing pressure, the lower the pressure at which the phase transition occurred.

Low-temperature and high-pressure polymorphs of isopropyl alcohol

Single-crystal X-ray diffraction has been used to elucidate the structure of two polymorphs of isopropyl alcohol, one grown through in situ cryo-crystallisation, the other through high-pressure crystallisation.

Structure of organic solids at low temperature and high pressure

This tutorial review summarises the current state of the art in low temperature and high pressure crystallography of molecular organic and coordination compounds.

Masquerade: removing non-sample scattering from integrated reflection intensities

X-ray diffraction experiments at very low temperatures require samples to be isolated from atmospheric conditions and held under vacuum. These conditions are usually maintainedviathe use of beryllium chambers, which also scatter X-rays, causing unwanted contamination of the sample's diffraction pattern. The removal of this contamination requires novel data-collection and processing procedures to be employed. Herein a new approach is described, which utilizes the differences in origin of scattering vectors from the sample and the beryllium to eliminate non-sample scattering. The programMasqueradehas been written to remove contaminated regions of the diffraction data from the processing programs. Coupled with experiments at different detector distances, it allows for the acquisition of decontaminated data. Studies of several single crystals have shown that this approach increases data quality, highlighted by the improvement in internal agreement factor with the test case of cytidine presented herein.