Sydney Analytical opens single-crystal X-ray diffraction facility

Sydney Analytical has opened its new high-performance single-crystal X-ray diffraction facility, featuring a newly installed SynergyCustom from Rigaku Oxford Diffraction — understood to be one of the most powerful and comprehensive systems of its kind. Custom-designed for Sydney Analytical’s research requirements, the system has a versatility that will see it serve researchers from multiple disciplines — such as molecular biology, structural biology, chemistry, chemical engineering, pharmacy and medicine — well into the future.

As The University of Sydney’s flagship facility for chemical, biological and materials analysis, Sydney Analytical maintains instruments across several locations to serve cutting-edge research. The SynergyCustom replaces an older system and will better serve research into areas such as macromolecular crystallography, MOFs, functional materials, catalysts, anion receptors, inorganic materials, organic chemistry and charge density studies.

The system is powered by a high-flux rotating anode X-ray generator, featuring a novel combination of copper and silver sources. It also has a dual port configuration allowing for experiments to be run on both ports simultaneously, which can cater for completely different experiments. On one side there is a 96 well-plate screener, ACTOR 2 sample-handling robot for maximum throughput and unattended operation, cryogenic sample facility and HyPix 6000HE hybrid photon counting (HPC) detector. The other side allows for high-pressure, ultralow-temperature experiments (down to 28 K) and features a HyPix Arc-150 HPC detector.

Any crystal structure collected by the system can be elucidated using Rigaku’s CrysAlis^pro software. With X-ray analytical power second only to the synchrotron, the new system also allows researchers to reduce the number of samples that need to be sent to the synchrotron through better optimisation and even avoiding the need in some cases where the data generated is of high enough quality.

“The system supports significant high-end science ranging from macromolecular samples, to framework materials and solid state compounds for a variety of research areas,” said X-ray Facility Manager Dr William Lewis. “The combination of a high brightness Cu source for routine and macromolecular samples and the short wavelength Ag source for high pressure, diffuse scattering and PDF measurements was key in our decision to go with this system.”

When asked about what new capabilities the system brought to the facility, Lewis replied, “The high-brilliance copper source allows significantly smaller crystals to be investigated and, in combination with the fast detectors and goniometers, also allow significantly faster data collection compared to previous infrastructure, greatly improving throughput.

“The plate screening attachment provides a capability that was previously unavailable, allowing crystallographers to screen crystals in situ, without having to go through the sometimes laborious process of mounting the crystals. The high-energy silver source improves the range of data collected for high-pressure, charge density and total scattering experiments, and also significantly speeds up these experiments.”

Professor Cameron Kepert, the chief investigator on the grant proposal that led to the acquisition of the system, added, “This is a tremendously exciting instrument to have and it will support numerous researchers across numerous faculties and bring these researchers together in ways that haven’t been possible previously.”

Rigaku Oxford Diffraction’s distributor in Australia, AXT, was responsible for the installation, commissioning and maintenance of the system. AXT Managing Director Richard Trett said, “This is a very significant installation for The University of Sydney, Rigaku Oxford Diffraction and AXT. We are extremely proud that we have been able to help bring the whole project together and look forward to seeing the fantastic research that it will enable.”

Dr Mark Benson, Head of Single Crystal Business at Rigaku Oxford Diffraction, added, “As one of the most comprehensive and powerful single-crystal diffractometers in the world, this installation shines a light on the importance of crystallography and the strength of Australian research. We are grateful to The University of Sydney for recognising the capabilities of our instruments and proud they have put their trust into our XRD instruments for over 10 years.”

The University of Sydney and Sydney Analytical are grateful to the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the Linkage Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) scheme that made the instrument acquisition possible.

Image caption: One side of the Rigaku Oxford Diffraction SynergyCustom, featuring the sample loading robot, cryo sample handling and HyPix 6000HE HPC detector.