MRI: Acquisition of a Small Angle X-ray Scattering Instrument with In Situ Capabilities

该项目将使PI和联合PI获得一个强大的小角度x射线散射（SAXS）仪器，该仪器配备了一系列原位样品阶段，这将加速和加强德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校（UT Austin）优先领域的广泛研究活动，对先进制造业、清洁能源和人类健康的生物科学产生影响。新仪器将被整合到UT Austin现有的用户设施基础设施中，确保其对不同用户群的可用性。特别是，要获得的仪器可以替代远程设施，并且在某些方面超过了远程设施的能力，允许更多的材料表征研究在校园内进行，而不需要学生旅行。因此，德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校在研究方面非常活跃的本科生群体将因此次收购而接触到最先进的x射线散射方法。PI将获得SAXSLAB Ganesha 300XL+系统，该系统具有高亮度微聚焦x射线源，无散射狭缝和高动态范围Pilatus 300k探测器。这些规范将使UT Austin能够询问低对比度样品，如嵌段共聚物和生物分子组件；以前的研究仅限于基于同步加速器的研究。除了易于交换的样品阶段，用于在溶液、大块样品和薄膜上进行定量散射（包括掠入射），该仪器还具有许多原位阶段，可以研究中尺度结构的动态演变。这些功能在用户可访问的、基于校园的仪器中非常适合于研究生物环境中的结构演变，为自适应材料系统的设计提供信息，开发有效的材料处理策略，以及诊断材料降解途径。目前，德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校的研究人员通过前往同步加速器设施来满足他们对SAXS的大部分需求，尽管这些设施都不在附近。德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校现有的SAXS仪器早于从源到探测器的台式x射线仪器的现代进步。一个现代化的仪器，装备精良的常规和复杂的原位实验，将对德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校的研究活动产生直接和重大的影响。

This project will allow the PI and co-PIs to acquire a powerful small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) instrument equipped with a collection of in situ sample stages that will accelerate and enhance a broad range of research activities in priority areas at the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) with an impact on advanced manufacturing, clean energy, and bioscience for human health. The new instrument will be incorporated into the existing user facility infrastructure at UT Austin, ensuring its availability to a diverse user base. In particular, the instrument to be acquired substitutes and in some ways exceeds the capabilities of remote facilities, allowing more materials characterization research to be carried out on campus without requiring students to travel. As such, the diverse undergraduate student population of UT Austin, who are very active in research, will be exposed to state-of-the-art X-ray scattering methods as a result of the acquisition. The PI will acquire a SAXSLAB Ganesha 300XL+ system featuring a high brilliance microfocus X-ray source, scatterless slits, and a high dynamic range Pilatus 300k detector. These specifications will bring to UT Austin the ability to interrogate low-contrast samples such as block copolymers and bio-molecular assemblies; studies that have previously been confined to synchrotron-based investigations. Besides readily exchangeable sample stages for quantitative scattering on solutions, bulk samples, and thin films (including grazing incidence), the instrument features a number of in situ stages to enable investigation of dynamic evolution of mesoscale structures. These capabilities in a user-accessible, campus-based instrument are ideally suited for investigating structural evolution in biological environments, informing design of adaptive materials systems, developing effective materials processing strategies, and diagnosing materials degradation pathways. Currently, researchers at UT Austin fulfill a majority of their need for SAXS by traveling to synchrotron facilities, though none are located nearby. The existing SAXS instrument at UT Austin predates modern advances in bench top X-ray instrumentation from the source to the detector. A modern instrument, well-equipped for both routine and sophisticated in situ experiments, will have an immediate and major impact on research activities at UT Austin.