X-ray diffraction machine |
I was able to follow the lecture to an extent, thanks in
large part to taking both physics and multivariable calculus this past
semester. Unfortunately, most of the lecture stayed right up over my head,
occasionally coming down to grace me with a tiny light-bulb moment.
In the corresponding lab, all I can say is there was a lot
of math involved. Some simple, some not so simple. There was a drawing element
involved, where I found out that Claire can draw super straight lines, whereas
mine look like something from a Dr. Seuss book. There was a statistics element,
of course, as there always seems to be nowadays, but there was also a
nice fun element as well, which you may find smack dab in between fluorine,
uranium, and nitrogen on the periodic table (I apologize for the bad joke…it’s
late). All in all, it was really cool. We matched a diffraction spectrum to the
crystals that originally formed them. It was a long process, but doing
everything manually made me realize how much goes into this technique.
First of all, for those of you who weren’t in the lecture or
lab today, X-ray diffraction is a method that studies the arrangement of atoms
in crystals and other solids. X-rays hit the crystal or powder and diffract
into many different waves that destructively or constructively interfere with
each other. Think Young’s double slit experiment or its multi-slit counterpart.
From just the diffraction angles and intensities (and a lot of math), you can
obtain a picture of how atoms and electrons are arranged in the solid you
started with. That’s the basic idea.
Crown ether. Isn't it pretty? |
So all in all, x-ray diffraction led to serious growth as
far as chemistry is concerned. For now, it may be confusing and a little over
our heads, and maybe one day I'll completely understand it. For now, however, I'll leave it to the geniuses.
References:
http://www.google.it/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CJQBEBYwBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fepswww.unm.edu%2Fxrd%2Fxrdbasics.pdf&ei=B7rbT4fWE9P44QSKmr3KCg&usg=AFQjCNGZNByYiZEOWyu0I5irqdJHFm3I2A
http://www.google.it/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CGMQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iucr.org%2F__data%2Fassets%2Fpdf_file%2F0015%2F735%2Fchap18.pdf&ei=hNPbT--WAa7E4gTwh4DQCg&usg=AFQjCNFKEFCTlSQGniYY-JrompqQ0dXxlA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_crystallography
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