MRI: Acquisition of Small/Ultra Small/Wide Angle X-ray Scattering for Materials Research

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This award brings new capabilities to researchers at Iowa State University and the University of Iowa in understanding the nanoscale properties of materials using state of the art X-ray characterization techniques. The instrumentation will support a number of technologies including a number of nationally recognized "Grand Challenges for Engineering" including "Make solar energy economical", "Provide access to clean water", "Restore and improve urban infrastructure", and "Engineer better medicines". The new capabilities will not only substantially enhance resources for materials characterization and allow the establishment of a center for analysis of soft matter in the Midwest, it will also foster cross-disciplinary knowledge exchange as well as collaboration across institutions. Integration of the instrumentation in on-going projects, summer projects and in training will allow undergraduate, graduate, and research scientists in the STEM fields including women, Native, African Americans, and Hispanics to benefit from the knowledge of a modern, leading-edge technique. These new techniques will also be integrated into various graduate and even undergraduate lecture courses in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Physics, and Materials Science. Outreach activities will include offers for hands-on experience; new educational materials on the techniques and their application for solving problems in materials science; and making these materials available to high school students and teachers, other institutions of higher education and the public.This award brings a critical analytical technique for the measurement of structure and dynamics in a diverse array of materials to Iowa State University (ISU) and the University of Iowa (UI): Ultra Small/Small/Wide angle X-ray scattering Instrumentation (USAXS/SAXS/WAXS). The proposed instrument is a state-of-the-art 10 m Xenocs Xeuss 2.0, with the capability of resolving scattered intensities in a wide q-range, complete with simultaneous mechanical (shear/tensile) and thermal (DSC) measurement systems for solids, solutions, melts, and thin films. Our highly interdisciplinary core user group comprises 23 faculty from 11 departments spanning 6 colleges and 2 Iowa universities. The instrument will support research in areas spanning from ionic liquids to polymers to ceramics, with diverse applications covering areas from solar energy to genetic engineering to nanomedicines, at technology readiness levels ranging from purely fundamental/high risk ideas to applied technologies at the cusp of commercialization. Many of these areas align with the Grand Challenges for Engineering as determined by the National Academies of Engineering, including: "Make solar energy economical", "Provide access to clean water", "Restore and improve urban infrastructure", and "Engineer better medicines". Data on phase transitions, conformational states, grain sizes, isotropy/anisotropy in response to temperature changes and other external stimuli of polymers, proteins, liquid crystals, molten salts, thin films, and inorganic nanoparticles can be acquired. These measurements will be used to validate scientific hypotheses and models, and will form the basis of new models and hypotheses.