Mercury

X-ray diffraction offers a powerful method for structure elucidation, and is a widely used characterisation method. Using X-ray diffraction structure files, molecules can be visualised and physical parameters such as bond lengths and angles can be obtained, along with information on packing arrangements in the solid state.

Many crystallographic software viewing tools are available, but the most frequently used in the department is Mercury a piece of software created by the CCDC, a large database which stores Xray data for a vast range of molecules