Electron crystallography of chiral and non-chiral small molecules

Abstract

Electron crystallography has recently gained attentions in multiple fields of research, as it has been demonstrated to determine atomic structures for inorganic, organic, and macromolecular materials from nano-sized crystals that were not amenable to conventional X-ray crystallography. Here, we demonstrate continuous-rotation microcrystal electron diffraction (microED) in a 200 kV transmission electron microscope using a DE-64 camera-a low-noise direct electron detector that can accommodate a linear response up to ∼1200 electrons per pixel per second at 20 fps with 2x-hardware-binning, making it ideal for acquisition of high-quality diffraction patterns. We have used this method and camera to determine a 0.75 Å structure of an organic molecule, biotin, with an exceptional goodness-of-fit, as well as a 0.88 Å structure of a chiral molecule, L-serine.