This award from the Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities (CRIF) Program will assist the Department of Chemistry at The University of Utah to acquire an X-ray diffractometer with CCD detector. This equipment will enhance research in a number of areas including the following: (1) structural studies of organic-based magnets; (2) supramolecular chemistry and self-assembly; (3) metal pentadienyl chemistry; (4) organometallic chemistry; and (5) mechanistic studies on dinuclear hydrolytic catalysts. The X-ray diffractometer is used to make accurate and precise measurements of the full three dimensional structure of a molecule. The information obtained gives the precise values of all the bond distances and bond angles of a given molecule and it gives accurate information about the spatial arrangement of the molecule relative to the neighboring molecules.
