This initiative seeks to disseminate crystallography and X-ray techniques, especially powder diffraction, in the Latin American scientific-technological community. It also seeks to orient research supported by crystallographic methods toward the SDGs, mainly promoting quality education.

In its first edition, this initiative seeks to train (mainly junior) Latin American researchers so that from a scientific approach, they can recognize the contributions of crystallography towards Sustainable Development, where they can identify global challenges that can be addressed through scientific innovation supported by crystallography.

Aim of the school

Acquire theoretical and practical knowledge of the process of structural characterization of materials using X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) techniques.

X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques are the most powerful tools available to solid-state scientists for the structural characterization of materials. These techniques are the backbone of crystallography and have been essential for the study of a wide variety of materials, from minerals to biological macromolecules such as DNA and proteins, including semiconductors, catalysts, ceramics, metal complexes, natural products, pharmaceutical ingredients, among other important materials.

In particular, X-ray diffraction techniques on polycrystalline samples are particularly important as analytical techniques in processes in which the identification and quantification of the components of solid aggregates is required. These techniques allow to follow structural changes in materials when they are subjected to various treatments (chemical, humidity, temperature, pressure, etc.). They are also used in the characterization of nanomaterials since they allow the determination of the nanometric size of their crystalline domains as well as other important microstructural aspects of materials. Also, the crystal structure of numerous interesting materials has been determined using X-ray powder diffraction data.