Illustrated Glossary of Organic Chemistry

X-ray crystallography (x-ray diffraction): The study of crystal structure, and the structure of the atoms, molecules, or ions which compose the crystal, based on diffraction of x-ray photons.






Crystals
A diffraction pattern caused by constructive and
destructive interference of x-ray photons.

Deconvolution of the diffraction pattern gives an
electron density map, from which molecular
structure
can be determined. Here the structure is
rendered as an ORTEP drawing.