Acquisition of Small-Angle X-Ray Scattering under Shear for Materials Research and Education

这笔赠款用于购买小角度X射线散射设备，用于宾夕法尼亚州立大学的材料研究和教育。小角X射线散射(SAXS)是在2-100 nm尺度上探测材料结构的最强大的分析工具之一。这种规模制度涵盖了宾夕法尼亚州立大学的各种研究。新仪器将使人们能够对液晶等复杂流体的基本结构-性质关系进行令人兴奋的新研究，在这种情况下，剪切作用会扰乱缺陷纹理的形态，而缺陷纹理的形态又决定了流变学。这类材料对于显示器、光学数据存储和成像非常重要。剪切流还可以在相界附近引起相变，并导致截然不同的最终形态。例如，聚合物共混物中的流动诱导相分离和流动诱导结晶。SAXS是研究这些效应的理想手段。SAXS还将用于正在进行的生物材料纳米级相分离、纳米多孔固体中流体的固化和分子自组装的研究。这笔收购将填补宾夕法尼亚州立大学材料研究的一个关键分析空白。我们预计，校园内SAXS的可获得性将教育学生和教职员工X射线散射技术。该仪器将加强所有用户的现有研究计划，并使新的研究和合作成为可能，部分原因是纳入了对教职员工研究非常重要的原位流体剪切仪。这一新的SAXS仪器将为研究生和本科生创造学习机会。材料科学与工程系将开设SAXS实验室课程。该仪器将成为宾夕法尼亚州立大学校园材料研究所分析实验室的一部分，向200多个研究小组和700名研究生提供。

This grant provides support for the acquisition of small-angle X-Ray scattering equipment to be used for materials research and education at Pennsylvania State University. Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) is one of the most powerful analytical tools for probing the structure of materials on 2-100 nm length scales. This size regime encompasses a diverse spectrum of research at Pennsylvania State University. The new instrument will enable exciting new studies of fundamental structure-property relationships of complex fluids such as liquid crystals, where the application of shear perturbs the morphology of the defect texture, which in turn dictates the rheology. This class of materials is important for displays, optical data storage and imaging. Shear flow is also known to induce phase changes near phase boundaries and result in markedly different final morphologies. Examples include flow-induced phase separation in polymer blends and flow-induced crystallization. SAXS is the ideal means to study these effects. SAXS will also be used in ongoing research on nano-scale phase separation in biomaterials, solidification of fluids in nanoporous solids and molecular self-assembly. This acquisition will fill a critical analytical void in materials research at Pennsylvania State University. We expect that the availability of on-campus SAXS will educate students and faculty in the techniques of X-ray scattering. The instrument will strengthen existing research programs of all users and enable new research and collaborations, in part by the incorporation of an in situ fluid shear cell important to faculty research. This new SAXS instrument will create learning opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students. A SAXS laboratory course will be developed in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. The instrument will become part of Penn State's campus-wide Materials Research Institute analytical lab, making it available to more than 200 research groups and 700 graduate students.