A Process for Modelling Diffuse Scattering from Disordered Molecular Crystals, Illustrated by Application to Monoclinic 9-Chloro-10-methylanthracene

Abstract

Diffuse scattering from a crystal contains valuable information about the two-body correlations (related to the nanoscale order) in the material. Despite years of development, the detailed analysis of single crystal diffuse scattering (SCDS) has yet to become part of the everyday toolbox of the structural scientist. Recent decades have seen the pair distribution function approach to diffuse scattering (in fact, total scattering) from powders become a relatively routine tool. However, analysing the detailed, complex, and often highly anisotropic three-dimensional distribution of SCDS remains valuable yet rare because there is no routine method for undertaking the analysis. At present, analysis requires significant investment of time to develop specialist expertise, which means that the analysis of diffuse scattering, which has much to offer, is not incorporated thorough studies of many compounds even though it has the potential to be a very useful adjunct to existing techniques. This article endeavours to outline in some detail how the diffuse scattering from a molecular crystal can be modelled relatively quickly and largely using existing software tools. It is hoped this will provide a template for other studies. To enable this, the entire simulation is included as deposited material.