In an undergraduate chemistry curriculum, one of the first things we teach our students is the structure and properties of atoms and molecules in order to help develop a “molecular understanding”. With drawings or models, students learn to answer questions such as, “What is the length of this chemical bond?” or “What is the shape of this molecule?” With modern instrumentation, the molecular structure of crystalline compounds may be experimentally determined in a matter of hours, adding another means to depict realistic molecular structures for students that also links learning to the experimental laboratory. The speed and ease of use of such instrumentation today is exceptional, such that it may be introduced more widely to undergraduate students in particular not only in research, but in coursework, even when there is limited time available for a crystallography module. The NSF’s Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program supports the acquisition of X-ray diffraction equipment for research and the integration of X-ray crystallography into the curriculum.<br/><br/>This talk will focus on strategies for writing a successful grant to obtain a single crystal X-ray diffractometer and a teaching module used to expose undergraduate students to small molecule crystallography including the publication of the resulting crystal structures. With examples of student obtained structures, topics will include: how to justify diffractometer acquisition at a primarily undergraduate institution to funding agencies like NSF, sample choice, how the discovery based molecular structure determination lab module works, guiding students in the assessment of molecular packing and intermolecular interactions, and the writing of descriptions of crystal and molecular structures for publication in collaboration with undergraduate students.<br/><br/>This work was supported by grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation: NSF-MRI 0521237, NSF-RUI 0911324 & NSF-MRI 1526982.

Undergraduate crystallographic education made possible by the NSF Major Research Instrumentation Program

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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