This outstanding facility includes two CCD area-detector diffractometers. One is a Nonius KappaCCD instrument equipped with molybdenum radiation, and the other is a Bruker Kappa Apex-II instrument with copper radiation. Both instruments are equipped with Oxford Cryosystems Cryostream chillers for low-temperature data collection, and virtually all data are collected at approximately 100 K. The facility is thus equipped to optimally handle organic, organometallic, and inorganic compounds, and to perform absolute configuration determinations for chiral compounds, including chiral organics. The facility has a number of dedicated computers, with LINUX, Windows and Macintosh operating systems. A wide range of crystallographic software is available, including the Apex-II, SHELX, maXus, PLATON and WinGX program packages for solving, refining, analyzing, visualizing, and reporting structures. Access to crystallographic databases is available, including the Cambridge Structural Database for organic and organometallic compounds, as well as the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database. This facility is managed on a full time basis by an expert Ph.D crystallographer, Dr. Frank Fronczek, and it annually produces approximately 500 structure determinations. Both formal and informal training of students in the use of the facility is available. The availability of rapid and high-quality crystal structure analysis by single-crystal X-ray diffraction methods has established LSU as a leader in structural chemistry in the United States.
A Bruker D8 Advance Powder Diffractometer is located in Prof. Julia Chan's X-ray lab. The D8 is a high resolution powder diffractometer with a sealed X-ray source (Cu) in the standard vertical θ-2θ geometry. A germanium incident beam monochromator is used produce Kα2 free radiation.
Protein Crystallography Facility
The on-campus facility for macromolecular crystallography houses a Nonius FR591 rotating anode with a Mar345 image plate detector. The system is equipped with Osmic mirrors. An Oxford Cryojet allows data collection at low temperature. In addition, LSU has a synchrotron located approximately four miles from campus. The recent addition of a protein crystallography beam line at the Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices (CAMD, see link below) by the Gulf Coast Protein Crystallography Consortium should provide LSU with 24-30 days of scheduled beam time per year.