The empirical formula of TGS does not represent the molecular structure, which contains protonated glycine moieties and sulfate ions.

These crystals are pyroelectric and ferroelectric which allows their use as photodetector elements in infrared spectroscopy and night vision applications.

The crystal structure consists of SO42−, 2(N+H3CH2COOH) (G1 and G2 in the crystal-structure diagram), and +NH3CH2COO− (G3) species held together by hydrogen bonds.

[2][7] DTGS and DLATGS materials are derivatives of TGS which have better pyroelectric properties and give less detector noise as can be shown in the following table.

Fi =p (nC/cm2.oK) FV =p/ε´ (nC/cm2.oK) FD = p/√ε ′′ (nC/cm2.oK) 16-45 0.5-1.14 0.4-121 25-70 1.4 - 25 1.13 - The typical performance and pyroelectric properties of DLATGS detectors of 1.3 and 2.0 mm in diameter of the element size are shown in the table below.