Liquid Nitrogen Cryostat - AWARD

The UK National Crystallography Service (NCS) facility is amongst the most powerful and highest throughput of its type in the world, with its core business being to handle and examine samples that a typical academic crystallography unit cannot. The technique provides structural characterisation at atomic resolution, enabling the molecular and whole solid-state structure to be elucidated. It is based on taking a single crystallite and shining X-rays on it - the mathematical synthesis of the diffracted X-ray beams enables atomic positions to be calculated, hence providing the structure. A single crystal X-ray structure provides an unambiguous answer at an unparalleled resolution and is the gold standard for publishing new compounds and materials - without such a structure many new chemical syntheses simply wouldn't be strongly enough evidenced to publish. Modern synthesis methods and chemistry targets often simply don't produce crystals of a suitable size or quality for conventional apparatus to analyse, hence the significant requirement for recourse to more powerful facilities.

The service focusses on the technique of single crystal diffraction applied to samples submitted by UK Chemistry, and related, disciplines. This technique provides the most detailed characterisation possible for solid-state chemicals and the NCS is dedicated to investigating the smallest and most-weakly scattering crystals that challenge the community. The ability to handle the most demanding samples in the Southampton laboratory is a key feature and provides an effective filter for a follow-on service where only the most challenging samples from across the country need to be examined at expensive and in-demand central facilities. The NCS has regular access to the world-leading I19 beamline at Diamond Light Source and facilitates access to the neutron facility, ISIS. In addition to structure determination and characterisation, the NCS also provides a range of highly advanced, structural chemistry research-based crystallographic studies including charge density, variable temperature, high pressure and gas cell techniques. A commercial service for the industrial sector is also available. Professionalism is a trademark of the NCS - it prides itself in exemplary and rigorous processes for sample handling and tracking, data management and publishing, a bespoke user interface and an ability to deliver to a demanding set of Key Performance Indicators. Sample turnaround time is rapid, with >95% samples being turned around within agreed times which are generally acknowledged as faster than most facilities. This means that this facility is often used to progress a research project in real time, as well as providing characterisation data on its final outputs.

The NCS has just installed a new single crystal X-ray diffractometer system and requires a suitable open flow cryostat to be added to the system in order for data collections to be performed in the liquid ...