SGER: Crystallography without crystals: Electron diffraction of laser aligned molecules embedded in superfluid helium droplets

本次SGER奖由美国俄勒冈州立大学孔为教授及其博士后和研究生同事在实验物理化学项目资助下进行探索性研究，尝试对超流氦液滴中的分子和团簇进行分子结构测定。PI和她的团队将使用聚焦激光辐射来对准分子目标，结合电子衍射来确定结构。最初的研究目标是酞菁化合物。Kong和她的团队正试图开发一种方法来快速确定其他方法无法确定的物种的分子结构。大多数结构测定是通过x射线衍射研究完成的，这需要高质量的晶体才能获得良好的结果。并不是所有的分子（例如一些蛋白质）都容易形成晶体，因此很难用传统的x射线衍射方法来研究它们。Kong的工作可能会导致使用单分子进行高通量分子结构测定的更通用的方法。

In this SGER award, funded by the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program, Prof. Wei Kong of Oregon State University and her postodoctoral and graduate student colleagues will conduct exploratory research to attempt to do molecular structure determination of molecules and clusters in superfluid helium droplets. The PI and her team will use focused laser radiation to align the molecular targets, combined with electron diffraction for structure determination. Initial targets for study are phthalocyanine compounds.Prof. Kong and her group are attempting to develop methods to rapidly determine molecular structure for species that are not amenable to other methods. Most structural determination is done through X-ray diffraction studies, which require high quality crystals to obtain good results. Not all molecules (e.g. some proteins) readily form crystals, and hence they are difficult to study with the traditional x-ray diffraction methods. Kong's work may lead to a more general method for high-throughput molecular structure determination, using single molecules.