Students and a professor performing research with lasers.

The X-ray Crystallographic Center offers

  • State-of-the-Art X-ray Diffraction Facilities
  • Quality Service & Competitive Rates
  • Experience & Expertise 

and performs

  • characterization of materials using non-destructive X-ray diffraction analysis and
  • crystal structure determination from single crystal and polycrystalline samples:

Chemical Crystallography:

  • provides single crystal structure determination of variety of inorganic, metal-organic, organic and pharmaceutical compounds as well as minerals and intermetallic compounds, including absolute structure determination, treatment of merohedral and non-merohedral twins, disordered, OD and modulated crystals at low, ambient or elevated temperature, in open or inert atmosphere.

Materials Characterization:

  • provides powder X-ray diffraction analysis and characterization of polycrystalline and nano-crystalline materials and thin films, covering phase identification, qualitative and quantitative analysis, degree of crystallinity / amorphous content determination, micro-diffraction and area mapping, samples of any size and shape, crystallite size and micro-strain determination,
  • as well as extract structural information: as ab initio indexing and high precision unit cell refinement, crystal structure refinement using the Rietveld method or pair distribution function, as well as ab initio structure determination from powder diffraction data.

Advanced Diffraction:

  • provides X-ray diffraction measurements for reflectivity (XRR) from thin films using X'Pert Pro MRD system and
  • small angle x-ray scattering Xeuss SAXS/WAXS/GISAXS system for proteins, polymers and nanomaterials.

The Center also

  • offers its equipment and expertise for Collaborative research with other local universities, government institution as well as industry located in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Washington DC, and nationwide;
  • provides Consulting in the field of X-ray diffraction and crystallography, solid state and materials chemistry, forensic analysis, materials characterization, pharmaceuticals, patents, legal issues, and others.

View the XCC brochure

New Instrumentation:

  • Photonic Laue back scattering system:
    •  determination of the orientation of crystals and grains.

New Instrumentation: Photonic Laue back scattering system

  • Bruker D8 Venture Duo single crystal diffractometer:
    • dual micro-source: Cu and Mo radiations,
    • N-Helix low-temp. system (28K – 320K),
    • high pressure Anvil cell. 

Bruker D8 Venture Duo single crystal diffractometer

Our New Location (MAP).
 

McMurdie Award!

McMurdie Award

Blue Book: 2nd Ed.

Cover of Fundamentals of Powder Diffraction and Structural Characterization of Materials Second Edition 

Dashboard (PLEASE send only electronic forms, unless they have to be submitted with samples.)

XCC info
FACES  Booking Instrumental Time - Faces Group: XCC_UMD
Fill-In Submission Forms
  • Powder Diffraction (PXRD, XRR) Form [D8, C2, X'pert]
  • Crystal Structure Determination Form [Apex2]
  • Small Angle X-ray Scattering Form [Xeuss]
New User
  • User Registration Form
  • XCC Lab Access is given to users only after the completion of training on the instrument.
    Note: activation code to activate or reset cell phone app can be requested from BSS@umpd.umd.edu
Radiation Safety

Contact info

Peter Y. Zavalij, Ph.D.
Crystallographer, Director of the X-ray Crystallographic Center
Office: 301-405-1861, Room 0514A, Chemistry Building (#091)
pzavalij@umd.edu
My webpage, Publon, Google Scholar, LinkedIn, ResearchGate

PXRD Lab: (301)405-9795, room 0514E.
SAXS Lab: (301)405-3230, room 0514F, contact Dr. Yimin Mao ymmao@umd.edu

Mailing and Shipping addresses 
Our location
Directions (by Google maps) to the closest Visitor Parking: Regents Drive Garage, College Park, MD
Directions from Visitor Parking to XCC: campus map (pdf) or section (jpeg)

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