Description: This text focuses on the practical aspects of crystal structure analysis, and provides the necessary conceptual framework for understanding and applying the technique. By choosing an approach that does not put too much emphasis on the mathematics involved, the book gives practical advice on topics such as growing crystals, solving and refining structures, and understanding and using the results. The technique described is a core experimental method in modern structural chemistry, and plays an ever more important role in the careers of graduate students, postdoctoral and academic staff in chemistry, and final-year undergraduates.
Review Quotes: "Explains the theory and methods behind the techniques of x-ray scattering structure analysis of crystals. Downplaying, but not eliminating, the mathematics involved, chapters discuss: crystal growth, evaluation, and mounting; symmetry and space group determination, data collection using four-circle diffractometers, area detectors, Fourier syntheses, structure determination by Patterson methods, direct methods of crystal structure determination, maximum entropy, least-squares fitting of parameters, structure refinement, the derivation and interpretation of results, the crystallographic information file, and crystallographic databases. Originating in an intensive course in x-ray structure analysis organized on behalf of the Chemical Crystallography Group of the British Crystallographic Association, this text assumes basic knowledge of crystal structure determination."--SciTech Book News