Fast and Accurate Quantum Crystallography: from Small to Large, from Light to Heavy

The coupling of the crystallographic refinement method Hirshfeld Atom Refinement (HAR) with the recently constructed libraries of extremely localized molecular orbitals (ELMOs) gives rise to the new quantum-crystallographic method HAR-ELMO. This method is significantly faster than HAR but as accurate and precise, especially concerning the free refinement of hydrogen atoms from X-ray diffraction data, so that the first fully quantum-crystallographic refinement of a protein is presented here. However, the promise of HAR-ELMO exceeds large molecules and protein crystallography. In fact, it also renders possible electron-density investigations of heavy elements in small molecules, such as mercury as presented here, and facilitates to detect and isolate systematic errors from physical effects.