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

该奖项为爱荷华州立大学和爱荷华大学的研究人员带来了新的能力，他们可以利用最先进的x射线表征技术来理解材料的纳米级特性。该仪器将支持许多技术，包括一些国家认可的“工程大挑战”，包括“使太阳能经济”，“提供清洁水”，“恢复和改善城市基础设施”，以及“设计更好的药物”。新的能力不仅将大大增加材料表征的资源，并允许在中西部建立一个软物质分析中心，它还将促进跨学科知识交流以及跨机构的合作。将仪器集成到正在进行的项目、夏季项目和培训中，将使STEM领域的本科生、研究生和研究科学家（包括女性、土著、非洲裔美国人和西班牙裔美国人）受益于现代前沿技术的知识。这些新技术也将被整合到化学、化学工程、物理和材料科学的各种研究生甚至本科生讲座课程中。拓展活动将包括提供实践经验；关于材料科学问题解决技术及其应用的新教材并将这些材料提供给高中学生和教师，其他高等教育机构和公众。该奖项为爱荷华州立大学（ISU）和爱荷华大学（UI）带来了一种用于测量各种材料结构和动力学的关键分析技术：超小/小/广角x射线散射仪器（USAXS/SAXS/WAXS）。提出的仪器是最先进的10 m Xenocs Xeuss 2.0，具有在宽q范围内分辨散射强度的能力，并配有固体、溶液、熔体和薄膜的同步机械（剪切/拉伸）和热（DSC）测量系统。我们高度跨学科的核心用户群包括来自6个学院和2所爱荷华大学的11个部门的23名教师。该仪器将支持从离子液体到聚合物到陶瓷等领域的研究，其应用范围涵盖从太阳能到基因工程到纳米药物等领域，技术就绪水平从纯粹的基础/高风险想法到商业化尖端的应用技术。其中许多领域与美国国家工程院确定的工程大挑战相一致，包括：“使太阳能经济”、“提供清洁水”、“恢复和改善城市基础设施”以及“设计更好的药物”。可以获得聚合物、蛋白质、液晶、熔盐、薄膜和无机纳米颗粒的相变、构象状态、晶粒尺寸、各向同性/各向异性对温度变化和其他外部刺激的响应数据。这些测量将用于验证科学假设和模型，并将形成新的模型和假设的基础。

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.