X-ray diffraction study of low symmetry organic molecular solids for learning use of on-line computer program and practice

Crystallographic studies of low symmetry organic molecular crystalline solids were performed by using XRD diffraction method. The well defined peaks appeared in the XRD profile of solids was indexed by using sin2 ratio method to understand the planes producing these peaks. The hkl values and d-spacing of the planes obtained from XRD file of diffractometer machine are feed into the software programme ‘CellCalc’ downloaded from internet website. Software has given crystallographic parameters, crystal angles and unit cell volumes which are further sed to calculate number of molecules per unit cell. The XRD data analysis found to be successful when sin ratio and software programme procedure are used together. The reliability of the analysis was indicated by the match observed for crystallographic parameter with the reported. Present article involves the details on the XRD experiments and data analysis of model compound p-terphenyl belonging to monoclinic lattice. The estimated value of number of molecules per unit cell 2 of p-terphenyl is same with the value reported in literature. This experiment can also incorporate into undergraduate and postgraduate laboratory curriculum and it is beneficial to the students for the comparative study of ordinary method and use of software for the motivation towards the study.