The MX beamlines at the Australian Synchrotron cover a broad range of beam sizes, intensities, capabilities, and techniques. Following the opening of the MX3 beamline, and the refurbishment of the MX2 beamline, this talk will cover all you need to know about conducting a chemical crystallography experiment at any of the MX beamlines and how to choose the best beamline for your experiment, as well as some examples of work carried out on each beamline.
MX1 offers hand mounting and robot mounting of standard samples, as well as a range of dynamic crystallography experiments. These include automated variable temperature collections, automated steady state photochemistry experiments, and single crystal and powder diffraction under pressure using a micro-Diamond Anvil Cell (DAC). Pump-probe time-resolved photochemistry is also in development.
MX2 offers a smaller and more intense beam than MX1, and has recently been upgraded with a new robot and goniometer. As such, there is a much higher capacity for robot mounting samples (464 pins at a time), and we strongly encourage you to use robot mounting instead of hand mounting. The refurbished MX2 will also feature a mini-kappa goniometer head, allowing for a full sphere of data collection to achieve complete data, in a similar way to the current MX1 mini-kappa.
MX3 offers an even smaller and even more intense beam than MX2. It is a beamline designed for experiments that require such a beam. This includes serial crystallography, which involves collecting single frames or small wedges of data on many individual crystallites, and then merging the data to obtain completeness. Serial crystallography can be conducted on a range of sample mounts, including chips, in-situ trays, grids, or flow-through capillaries. MX3 is also well suited for other experiments which require a small beam, such as crystalline mapping experiments.
Unattended data collection is in development for all three beamlines. For well diffracting crystals MX1 is the best beamline to use. For small and weakly diffracting crystals, MX2 is a good option. And for serial crystallography we recommend you utilise MX3.