A catalog of techniques, tips, tricks, and encouragement for growing crystals suitable for X-ray crystallography.

Over the last three decades, the technology that makes it possible to follow chemical processes in the solid state in real time has grown enormously. These studies have important implications for the design of new functional materials for applications in optoelectronics and sensors. Light–matter inter­actions are of particular importance, and photocrystallography has proved to be an important tool for studying these inter­actions.

Knowledge of the mol­ecular packing within the crystal structures of organic semi­con­duc­tors has been instrumental in understanding their solid-state electronic properties. Crystal structures are thus becoming increasingly important for enabling engineering properties, understanding poly­mor­phism in bulk and in thin films, exploring dynamics and elucidating phase-transition mech­a­nisms.