By: Ludmila Novikova Abstract: Before X-ray diffraction of crystals was applied to determine the arrangement of atoms in 1913, little was known about the geometric and stereochemical shape of molecules and about the science of crystallography in general. In fact, the atomic theory of matter was not completely accepted because there was no theory available to explain the existence of compounds of the same composition (Flack, 372). X-ray crystallography presented us with methods that would allow us to strike a […]
