Question: how does X-ray crystallography help you in researching reactions with uranium? (if it helps at all)

Megan Seymour answered on 9 Nov 2016:

That’s a great question! Yep, it helps a lot.
Normally, scientists use a technique called NMR (nuclear magnetic resonnance spectroscopy) to look at the structure of the molecules they make and to prove that they have actually made what they said they have.
NMR is quite complicated but measures tiny magnetic fields produced by atoms inside a molecule and tells you how the tiny magnetic fields of each of the atoms within the molecule are interfering with each other. From NMR data you can build up a picture of what your molecule looks like.
Because uranium atoms have such a strong magnetic field of their own (owing to the number of electrons that the have) it’s hard to see what else is going on in a molecule using NMR alone.
That’s why I rely on X-ray crystallography.
In X-ray crystallography a tiny crystalline sample of your molecule is mounted in an X-ray beam. The electrons surrounding each atom in the molecule reflect the X-rays back at a detector, and from the pattern of reflected X-rays you can work out the exact position of each atom, giving you a 3D picture of exactly what the molecule looks like!
I hope that mostly makes sense- if not leave a comment and I’ll try to explain a bit better 🙂