Teaching crystallography to chemistry students using the Cambridge Structural Database

X-ray diffraction in general, and small-molecule single-crystal X-ray diffraction in particular, are widely used in academic and industrial research for the characterization of new molecules. It is disappointing, therefore, that crystallography rarely appears in chemistry courses even though other characterization methods like NMR or IR spectroscopy are introduced to virtually all students. It is also surprising how few students are aware that using a specialized scientific database like the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) will frequently turn up a far more useful and relevant set of responses than entering a query into the search bar of their favorite web-browser or artificial-intelligence chatbot. In this presentation, I will share several examples of how I am using the CSD and other tools created and maintained by the Cambridge Crystallographic Database Center that Olga Kennard pioneered to teach key crystallographic concepts to chemistry students at the graduate and undergraduate level.