About Poly Crystallography, Inc.
X-ray diffraction (XRD)
can be used to characterize any solid crystalline material. Systems commonly studied include catalysts, corrosion and process deposits, metals and alloys, minerals, ceramics, cements, small organic molecules, pharmaceuticals, coordination complexes, polymers, and foodstuffs. The range of applications is very wide! Analysis can be carried out not only at ambient conditions, but in situ at high/low temperatures and in controlled atmospheres. XRD is one of the verty few techniques capable of providing structural information at real process conditions.Most real materials are composed of large numbers of very small crystallites (polycrystalline), and are ground into powders for analysis. Solid samples, such as metals and polymers, are also easily analyzed. Generally, ~1 gram of solid is convenient to analyze, but much smaller quantities can be used if necessary. If the sample can be seen visually, it is generally possible to obtain diffraction data. Most academic crystallography is performed on single crystals, generally 50-300 μm in size (though smaller crystals can also be used). Poly Crystallography can also provide single crystal structure determination services. Most XRD is carried out on laboratory diffractometers, and Poly Crystallography uses several state-of-the-art instruments. When required, better data can be collected at several national user facilities, such as the Advanced Photon Source (Argonne National Laboratory), the National Synchrotron Light Source (Brookhaven), the Spallation Neutron Source (Oak Ridge), and the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center.