PUBLICATION HIGHLIGHT · 2025 · Molecular Physical Chemistry Group
Krzysztof A. Konieczny co-authored a study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society on controlling chemical transformations during electron diffraction. The work was carried out with collaborators at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Electron beams can change molecular structures as well as reveal them. The researchers compared crystals designed to accommodate a cyclobutane-splitting reaction with crystals in which the same transformation disrupts the lattice. In the designed systems, reactions initiated by ionization propagated through electron transfer while preserving sufficient crystal order for structure determination at different stages.
The results show how molecular packing can reduce the loss of diffraction quality during a beam-induced reaction. This offers a chemical route to managing radiation damage in structural studies of molecular crystals.
Publication
Krzysztof A. Konieczny, Rishika Rai, José A. Rodriguez, Miguel A. García-Garibay. Single-Crystal-to-Single-Crystal Radical-Ion Chain Reactions under the Electron Microscope: A Chemical Design to Repurpose Electron Beam Damage. Journal of the American Chemical Society (2025).