DETERMINE THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL STRUCTURE OF MOLECULES
When chemical or biological substances crystallize into single crystals, the technique of X-ray diffraction can be used to determine their three-dimensional structure. The technique provides accurate and precise measurements of molecular dimensions in a way that no other method can approach and is the only method for determining absolute structure unambiguously. A frequent use is the identification of natural products, or of the products of synthetic chemistry experiments; however, detailed molecular geometry, intermolecular interactions, and absolute configuration can also be studied.
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