Small & Wide Angle X-ray Scattering lab
A unique Instrumental characterisation platform dedicated to the Small & Wide Angle X-Rays Scattering.
The laboratory hosts 3 SAXS instruments (XEUSS2, XEUSS3 and a home-made apparatus ChemSAXS). The laboratory is designed to enable bringing various experimental facilities close to the SAXS instruments. The platform has an automated batch chemical reactor, a synthesis robot, an automatic liquid sampler…). The different beamlines can receive very different sample types (powders, gels, liquids) and facilities (heaters, chillers, shearer…).
What is measured with SAXS ?
X-rays are used to investigate the structural properties of solids, liquids or gels. Photons interact with electrons, and provide information about the fluctuations of electronic densities in heterogeneous matter.
Small angle scattering experiments are designed to measure the intensities at very small scattering angles in order to investigate systems with characteristic sizes ranging from crystallographic distances (few Angströms) to colloidal sizes (up to few microns).
Xeuss 3
The Xeuss 3 instrument is a fully automated, state-of-the-art laboratory X-ray scattering (SAXS) instrument. It consists of two Cu and Mo X-ray microsources, a sample chamber placed under vacuum or air and a vacuum detector for low background diffusion. The detector is automatically moved to take measurements at different distances between the sample and the detector. The datas are then processed and assembled a processing software.
Different sample holders are available:
– Series of liquids (capillaries), powders, solids at room temperature,
– temperature-regulated plate (-196°C to 350°C),
– shear plate,
– circulation cell allowing coupling with external chemical reactors for in situ studies.
The platform is equipped with a robotic arm for the automated insertion of liquid samples in the form of 96-well plates.
The system also includes an Ultra-SAXS module (measurement of specific surface area, porosities, or characteristic sizes of nanoparticles between 200nm and 1µm).
Xeuss 2
The Laboratoire Léon Brillouin (LLB) has installed in the “SWAXSLab” within the NIMBE/LIONS a high resolution X-ray spectrometer Xeuss 2 from Xenoxs company ). This equipment aims at SAXS/ GISAXS and X-ray Reflectometry measurements as complements to SANS/ GISANS and Neutron Reflectometry experiments. Used in various research fields, such as soft matter, magnetic materials, chemistry, biology…, it allows investigating samples using SAXS for structural studies, and Grazing Incidence SAXS (GISAXS) and together with X-ray reflectivity for surface analysis. Its performances and specifications are complementary to the other X-rays devices of the SWAXSLab.
chemSAXS
An home-made SAXS instrument optimized for monitoring chemical reactions in-situ. The configuration is fixed and the flux is maximized in order to enable high throughput measurements.