Seminars Archive

Easy nanostructural analysis with Small-Angle Scattering.

Abstract
Theoretically, small angle scattering (SAS) can do what electron microscopy never could: it can characterise the nanostructure of large amounts of material with a minimum of fuss. Practically, however, one of the biggest stumbling blocks in its application is the analysis of the data, in particular for polydisperse systems. Using practical examples of precipitation in metal alloys, nanoparticle growth, and pore structures in fibres, I will highlight an easy method for analysis. Complete information (e.g. form-free size- and orientation distributions) can be extracted from high-quality isotropic and anisotropic scattering patterns with a minimum of assumptions. Secondly, the construction efforts and initial results of a very low-cost 17.4 keV Ultra-SAS instrument will be presented. When fully operational, this instrument will allow quantitative characterisation of nanostructural features from 0.5 to 2000 nm (in combination with standard SAXS). It will thus nicely bridge the gap between XRD and X-ray tomography for the characterisation of statistically significant amounts of material.