Crystal Structure Analysis Facility


The Crystal Structure Analysis Facility of The University of Sydney provides a single crystal X-ray diffraction structure determination and analysis service to both internal and external clients.

The facility is located on the first floor of the School of Chemistry and is currently equipped with two diffractometers; a Rigaku AFC7R diffractometer employing Cu radiation generated with a direct drive rotating anode, and a Bruker-AXS SMART 1000 CCD equipped diffractometer using Mo radiation generated from a sealed tube.

Supporting equipment includes SGI O2, Indigo Extreme and Indy workstations and several pentium PCs. Low temperature data collections down to 100 Kelvin are routinely undertaken with an Oxford Cryosystems Cyrostream liquid nitrogen low temperature data collection system. Collections to 25 Kelvin can now be undertaken with the installation of an OxfordCryosystems HeliX system. There are currently only 6 such sytems installed in laboratories world wide.

Software used includes SIR, SHELX, XSHELL, teXsan, PLATON, WINGX and XTAL.

Experimental details, tables and images are distributed by email. Structure analyses and contributions to publications are provided on request, and high quality images can be provided in a variety of formats.

The facility operates on a subsidised cost recovery basis for Australian academic and government customers, and on a full cost recovery basis for others. The charge structure assumes an average data set collection time of 5 days on the AFC7R and 1 day on the SMART 1000. The charge accumulates for each 1 or 5 day collection 'unit'; please note that the units are rounded upwards. The current charges are :

  • Academic or Government:
    A$ 120 for each collection unit
  • Other:
    A$ 700 for each collection unit

The charge applies regardless of the outcome and a 10% surcharge is applied to data sets collected at low temperatures. The charge assumes that the crystallographers name will appear on the author list of a consequential publication of the structure. Alternatively a further A$ 300 is charged if the crystallographers name is not to appear on the publication author list. Crystal examinations that do not result in a full data set collection, either because the unit cell clearly indicates that the structure has been previously reported or because a unit cell could not be obtained, will cost A$ 50 an hour for Australian academic or government customers and A$ 150 an hour for others. The charge for data collections that involve the use of the HeliX will additionally include the cost of helium gas consumed during the collection. A cylinder of high purity helium lasts approximately 17 hours.

Please note that as of 1/7/00 the charge also includes a 10% Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Crystals sent to the Facility should be accompanied by a submission form:


Text can be typed or pasted into the PDF form fields. The PDF form assumes an installation of Adobe Acrobat Reader 5 configured to operate outside the browser. Under Acrobat Edit/Preferences/General/Options uncheck 'Display PDF in Browser'.


Printing the form will produce two pages, the second having the postal address for the Facility:

Crystal Structure Analysis Facility,
School of Chemistry (F11),
University of Sydney,
Sydney, NSW,
Australia 2006.

The academic staff member responsible for the facility is Dr Trevor Hambley. The crystallography service is provided by the facility manager Dr Peter Turner. Our email addresses are:


This site is maintained by Peter Turner. p.turner@chem.usyd.edu.au


The University of Sydney disclaims liability for the accuracy or completeness of the information provided by this service. The University accepts no responsibility for any loss occasioned as a direct or indirect result of the use of information provided by this service.