MRI: Acquisition of an X-Ray Tomography Microscope Supporting Multidisciplinary Fundamental and Applied Research

1531871(阿诺德)应对当今在能源、环境、健康和安全方面的重大挑战依赖于具有非凡性能的新型材料的开发，以及对具有前所未有性能任务的自然材料的理解。材料的性质和性能取决于其在不同尺寸尺度上的结构，虽然通过观察表面可以获得许多信息，但为了真正了解材料的设计和使用，有必要在不破坏使用它们的系统或设备的情况下表征其内部三维结构。该项目旨在通过获得一种X射线层析显微镜(XRM)来实现这一目标，该显微镜能够以亚微米的空间分辨率可视化材料的三维结构，同时控制诸如拉伸-压缩、温度和流体流动等环境变量，并且在此过程中不破坏样品。通过这样做，普林斯顿将能够补充其在二维表征方面的现有专业知识，并创建一个用户设施，将为新类型的表征打开大门，旨在加深对跨领域材料的理解，如用于组织工程的生物材料、用于碳封存的地质材料，或用于能量储存的电化学材料。这些和许多其他前沿研究工作将使普林斯顿大学和邻近的研究人员能够为解决国家和世界面临的紧迫问题做出有意义和实质性的贡献。XRM对材料内部结构的可视化能力将被纳入教育和外联计划，旨在激励和激发年轻人对科学和工程的兴趣，并为取得学术成就注入信心和动力。该项目的目标是创建一种用户设施，能够对材料进行无损的、时间分辨的、3D结构和化学表征，以探索各种材料的结构-性能-加工-性能关系、缺陷的形成和演化、成分的异质性以及相的空间组织。通过这笔资金，我们将获得一台X射线层析显微镜(XRM)，能够以亚微米的空间分辨率可视化材料的3D结构，并增加控制拉伸-压缩、温度和流体流动等环境变量的能力。X射线显微镜具有独特的源-样品-探测器设计，可为对比度成像以及同一样品的多长度尺度成像提供前所未有的灵敏度，范围从纳米级(100 nm体素尺寸)到设备级(25微米体素)。用户将来自科学和工程领域，直接感兴趣的标本将包括电池、燃料电池、电子设备、聚合物、复合材料、生物膜、生物组织、水泥、岩心、沉积物、植物和土壤岩心。这种XRM的大工作距离为原位细胞提供了空间，这些细胞将被开发成能够在真实世界的操作条件下对材料进行依赖时间的、原位的、无损的研究。

1531871(Arnold)Addressing today's grand challenges in energy, environment, health, and security relies on the development of novel materials with extraordinary properties and the understanding of natural materials tasked with unprecedented performance. The properties and performance of a material depend on its structure across different size scales and although much information can be gained by looking at the surface, to truly understand the design and use of materials it is necessary to characterize their internal three dimensional structure without destroying the systems or devices in which they are used. This project seeks to achieve this goal by acquiring an X-Ray tomographic microscope (XRM) capable of visualizing the three dimensional structure of materials with submicron spatial resolution while controlling such environmental variables as tension-compression, temperature and fluid flow and without destroying the sample in the process. In doing so, Princeton will be able to complement its existing expertise in two dimensional characterization and create a user facility that will open the door to new kinds of characterization aimed at developing a deeper understanding of materials ranging across areas such as biological materials for tissue engineering, geological materials for carbon sequestration, or electrochemical materials for energy storage. These and numerous other frontier research efforts will enable Princeton and neighboring researchers to meaningfully and substantially contribute to the solution of pressing problems confronting the nation and the world. The XRM's ability to visualize the internal structures of materials will be incorporated to education and outreach programs that seek to inspire and excite young people about science and engineering and to instill confidence and motivation for academic achievement. The goal of this project is to create a user facility that enables non-destructive, time resolved, 3-D structural and chemical characterization of materials to probe aspects of structure-property-processing-performance relations, formation and evolution of defects, compositional heterogeneity, and the spatial organization of phases for broad classes of materials. Through this funding we will acquire an X-Ray tomographic microscope (XRM) capable of visualizing the 3D structure of materials with submicron spatial resolution and the added ability to control such environmental variables as tension-compression, temperature and fluid flow. The x-ray microscope has a unique source-sample-detector design that provides unprecedented sensitivity to contrast imaging along with multiple length scale imaging of the same sample, spanning the nanometer scale (100 nm voxel dimension) up to the device-scale (25 micron voxel). Users will come from across the sciences and engineering, and specimens of immediate interest will include batteries, fuel cells, electronic devices, polymers, composites, biofilms, living tissues, cements, rock cores, sediments, vegetation and soil cores. This XRM's large working distances provide space for in situ cells that will be developed to enable time-dependent, in situ, nondestructive studies of materials under their real-world operating conditions.