Dr. Steven J. Geib, Research Associate Professor of Chemistry, Director of X-Ray Crystallographic Facility
Mr. Paul Badger, X-ray Graduate Assistant
Mr. Ryan DaRe, Ms. Rosa Melendez, Mr. Kevin D. John and Dr. Joseph Manna, X-Ray Graduate Assistants Emeritus
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The Diffracto-Cam
Sorry, our diffracto-cam is broken, but here is a link to the PittChemCam, which shows the view from the X-ray Lab window. Live video for about 10 seconds; if you missed it, click reload. This video allows us to monitor our experiment when we're away from the lab. Read below about "What We Do" with X-ray Diffraction.
The Chemistry Department X-ray Crystallography Lab is located on the third floor of the Chevron Science Center. We have a Nicolet/Siemens/Bruker P3 diffractometer (sealed-tube Mo radiation, pictured above) which is controlled via Siemens P3/PC software. We also have access to a Rigaku AFC5R (MSC Corp.) diffractometer (Cu rotating anode) which is located in the Biology Department here at Pitt. We are equipped for low-temperature data collection.
We use primarily the Siemens SHELXTL package (which we used to produce the pictures on this page and in our gallery) for the solution, refinement and visualization of X-ray structures. Other programs we have found useful include Platon from Dr. A.L. Spek, Babel from U. of AZ, and the Cambridge Structural Database.
We use X-ray diffraction to determine the three-dimensional structure of organic and inorganic molecules which have been created in the various synthetic research groups here in the University of Pittsburgh Chemistry Department. We also collaborate with chemists outside the university. A Gallery of some favorite structures can be found here. Click here for a tutorial on X-ray diffraction. Click here for a bio of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (discoverer of X-rays). Röntgen won one of several Nobel Prizes for research with X-rays.
American Crystallographic Association Home Page
Pittsburgh Diffraction Society and Conference Homepage
ACA Service Crystallography SIG Homepage
Crystal Samples suitable for X-ray diffraction.
The World-Wide Web Virtual Library: Chemistry
Search.Com...web site of searching engines!
Steven Geib (geib@pitt.edu)
Department of Chemistry
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
