What is the Difference Between X-ray Crystallography and X-ray Diffraction

The key difference between X-ray crystallography and X-ray diffraction is that x-ray crystallography is the technique in which single crystals are exposed to x-rays, whereas x-ray diffraction is the technique in which a wide range of forms of the material are used for measurement.

X-ray crystallography and x-ray diffraction are important analytical techniques that we can use to determine the structure and properties of crystalline materials.

ONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is X-ray Crystallography 
3. What is X-ray Diffraction
4. X-ray Crystallography vs X-ray Diffraction in Tabular Form
5. Summary – X-ray Crystallography vs X-ray Diffraction

What is X-Ray Crystallography?

X-ray crystallography can be described as the experimental science that determines the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal. The crystalline structure of the crystal can cause the beam of incident X-rays to diffract the beam into many specific directions.

A crystallographer can measure the angles and intensities of the diffracted beams to produce a 3D image of the density of the electrons within this crystal material. Using this electron density, we can determine the mean positions of the atoms in the crystal, the chemical bonds along with the crystallographic disorder and other important information.

X-ray crystallography is related to a few other methods for determining atomic structures. It is not difficult to produce similar diffraction patterns through the scattering of electrons or neutrons.

What is X-Ray Diffraction?

X-ray diffraction can be described as a phenomenon in which the atoms of a crystal cause an interference pattern of the waves of the incident beam of x-rays. In this method, the atomic planes of the crystal act on the X-ray, in the same way the uniformly ruled diffraction grate on a beam of light.

X-ray diffraction is a technique that is useful in material science for the determination of the crystallographic structure of a material. This technique works by irradiating a material along with the incident x-rays and measuring the intensities, scattering angles of the x-rays, etc., that leave the material.

Typically, x-ray diffraction is useful in the primary characterization of material properties such as crystal structure, crystalline size, strain, etc. Therefore, the use of this technique in pharmaceutical research is extensively increasing.

We can simply denote x-ray diffraction as XRD. There are different types of x-ray diffraction methods such as micro XRD, parallel beam XRD, parallel XRD for powder, protein crystallography, and neutron diffraction.

What is the Difference Between X-ray Crystallography and X-ray Diffraction?

X-rays are very important in different analytical techniques such as x-ray crystallography. The key difference between X-ray crystallography and X-ray diffraction is that x-ray crystallography refers to the technique in which single crystals are exposed to x-rays, whereas x-ray diffraction refers to the technique in which a wide range of forms of the material are used for the measurement. In addition, x-ray crystallography is an experimental science, whereas x-ray diffraction is a chemical technique.

The following table summarizes the difference between X-ray crystallography and X-ray diffraction.

Summary – X-ray Crystallography vs X-ray Diffraction

X-ray crystallography is the experimental science that determines the atomic and molecular structure of a crystal, while X-ray diffraction is a phenomenon in which the atoms of a crystal cause an interference pattern of the waves in the incident beam of x-rays. The key difference between X-ray crystallography and X-ray diffraction is that x-ray crystallography refers to the technique in which single crystals are exposed to x-rays, whereas x-ray diffraction refers to the technique in which a wide range of forms of the material are used for the measurement.

Reference:

1. “X-Ray Diffraction.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Freezed XRD” By Kaspar Kallip – Own work (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “XRD diffractometer” By DrBoStefanov – Own work (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia