ELDICO Scientific AG

The new gold standard for electron diffraction

Introducing the first dedicated electron diffractometer to analyse solid compounds, enabling industrial and scientific researchers to characterize yet unmeasurable nanocrystalline systems. Our device offers high-quality structural information directly in the nanocrystal regime and delivers reliable results within a few hours.

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Project-based scientific services for your samples

From diffraction data collection (and pre-processing), structure determination (and refinement) to advanced structural analyses such as determination of the absolute configuration, we offer tailor-made service packages demonstrating good practices, reproducible results and timely delivery in our Basel lab.

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Shaping the future of crystallography

Electron Diffraction (ED) is gaining momentum in science and industry. The application of ED for performing nanocrystallography is a disruptive innovation that is opening up fascinating new perspectives particularly for organic compounds required in the fields of chemical, pharmaceutical and advanced materials research.

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Accelerated drug development

Our device enables pharmaceutical companies to obtain an accurate characterization of pre-clinical candidates to confirm functionality as a potential drug. This ensures earlier market adoption, thus saving billions in lead discovery and up to six months for the process, since our system produces high-quality structural information directly in the nanocrystal regime.

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Pushing e-mobility beyond boundaries

For energy storage, technology is changing rapidly. From smartphones to electric cars, the need for high-performance batteries is constantly increasing, and research into new concepts is required. There is room for technological improvement, and this is also where electron diffraction comes into play.

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Efficient carbon capture – for a better tomorrow

Accurate atomic structure determination with electron diffraction will be a key driver in further developing various synthetic compounds, such as MOFs: with their high tailorability and porosity, they are unique in materials science and proving extremely versatile for some big challenges in the context of the decarbonization of the global economy.

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Experimental results on ELDICO ED-1

Febuxostat

C16H16N2O3S

Goal:

Avoid tedious crystallisation – save time & money

Approach:

A crystal with approx. size of 0.6 x 0.3 x 0.1 µm was located and aligned by still images in STEM mode and diffraction data was collected in steps of 0.5° per frame while the crystal was continuously rotated at 1° per second over a range of 120°.

Tyrosine

C9H11NO3

Goal:

Getting a crystal structure from a pseudo-twinned sample of tyrosine, i.e. two crystals measured at the same time.

Approach:

One single run spanning an angular range of 100° phi rotation was recorded in 1° steps with an exposure time of 0.5 s per frame.

Histidine

C6H9N3O2

Goal:

Determine the absolute configuration of a chiral compound

Approach:

Diffraction data was collected in steps of 0.5° per frame while the crystal was continuously rotated at 1° per second over a range of 120°.

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FROM OUR TRUSTED CLIENTS’ LIST

Key opinion leaders on electron diffraction

We are in constant dialogue with research and manufacturing industries in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and advanced materials sector, as well as contract research organizations and academic research institutes.

Professor Jeroen van Bokhoven

Heterogeneous Catalysis in the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biology, ETH Switzerland & Head of Laboratory for Catalysis and Sustainable Chemistry (LSK) Paul Scherrer Institute

”The continued development and application of electron diffraction is particularly important because it enables structural analysis of individual crystals that are too small to be measured by X-ray diffraction.”
Dr. Mauro Gemmi

Director at the Center for Nanotechnology Innovation@NEST of Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, PISA, Italy

”A dedicated device for electron diffraction would open up a lot of new possibilities. I see new possibilities in materials science, I see possibilities in pharmacology, in organic chemistry. I see incredible possibilities in the fields where what is critical is the size of the crystal.”
Professor Ute Kolb

Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz Centre for High Resolution Electron Microscopy / TU Darmstadt Institute of Applied Geosciences

”In order to solve structures not accessible by X-ray powder diffraction, it was necessary to improve the acquisition of diffraction data significantly. When, in 2007, the first ab-initio structural analysis of barite was performed, I did not yet realize that this would be the foundation for a widely applicable 3D electron diffraction method.”
Dr. Bernd Hinrichsen

Head of the XRD, Electron Microscopy and NMR Labs at BASF AG, Germany

”Over the past decades, electron diffraction has been a regular tool in our analyses of inorganic materials. ED instruments with proper, more tailored functionalities are required to adequately address the requirements of the crystallographic structure analysis community.”
Dr. Tim Gruene

Head of the Centre for X-ray Structure Analysis at the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Vienna, Austria

”There are many diverse applications for electron diffraction in materials science and chemistry. Heterogeneous catalysts need to be very small to enlarge the relative surface. The grains are too small for X-ray crystallography, whereas ED makes it possible to determine their crystal structure at the original size.”
Dr. Lukas Palatinus

Head of Laboratory ED, FZU, Czech Republic

”Determination of the absolute configuration of organic molecules is essential in drug development and the subsequent approval process. This determination is possible thanks to electron diffraction using nanocrystalline material.”