Sydney Analytical Inaugurate High Performance Single Crystal X-ray Diffraction Facility

WARRIEWOOD, Australia - July 10, 2024 - PRLog -- On June 13, The University of Sydney's, Sydney Analytical, proudly opened their new high performance single crystal X-ray diffraction facility. Befitting of this world class facility, the newly installed Synergy Custom, from Rigaku Oxford Diffraction, is one of the most powerful and comprehensive systems in the world. Custom designed for their research requirements, the new system features a high flux X-ray source, sample loading robot, dual port configuration and latest generation hybrid photon counting (HPC) detectors. This versatility will see the instrument serve researchers from multiple disciplines, such as molecular biology, structural biology, chemistry, chemical engineering, pharmacy and medicine, well into the future.

Sydney Analytical is the University's flagship facility for chemical, biological and materials analysis. They maintain instruments across several locations to serve cutting-edge research. The new Rigaku Oxford Diffraction Synergy Custom 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 new system is powered by a high flux rotating anode X-ray generator, with a unique combination of copper and silver sources. It also features 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 the is a 96 well-plate screener, ACTOR 2 sample handling robot for maximum throughput and unattended operation, cryogenic sample facility and HyPix 6000HE HPC detector. The other side allows for novel high pressure, ultra-low 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 industry-leading CrysAlispro 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.

Present at the opening were key personnel from Sydney Analytical including Professor Margaret Sunde (Academic Director), Professor Chris Ling (Deputy Director), Dr. Peter Southon (Operations Manager), Dr. William Lewis (Facility Manager, X-ray techniques) as well as Prof. Cameron Kepert from the School of Chemistry who was instrumental in securing funding for the purchase of the instrument and many other staff members and researchers. Also present were Richard Trett and Peter Airey from AXT PTY LTD, Rigaku Oxford Diffraction's distributor in Australia and responsible for the installation, commissioning and maintenance of the system.

Full story at https://www.axt.com.au/sydneyanalytical/