Enabling microfocus & thin film X-ray scattering at the University of Southampton
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Southampton
Department Name: Sch of Chemistry
Abstract
X-ray diffraction is the main technique by which scientists and engineers study the structures of crystalline materials, however some sample types are often neglected due to the requirement for specialised instrumentation and expertise. This proposal provides advanced equipment to apply diffraction and related methods to a series of lesser-studied sample types of great importance in technology and in understanding environmental processes. These include thin layers of material on surfaces, where information about atomic separations, particle sizes, crystal orientation and changes in the size of the lattice due to interactions with the underlying material can be obtained. This will be critical to the understanding of a range of functional materials with applications in energy conversion and storage, electronics, optoelectronics and engineering. It will also be possible to study very small regions of a material, this is important in examination of single components or regions of a sample where variations are important in understanding properties. Sample types include minerals, where the structure of individual grains will contribute to knowledge of interactions with the environment, and single components of grids of material designed to have specific interactions with light.
Planned Impact
Our strategy is formulated around the specific aim of embedding advanced X-ray scattering experiments into a series of world-leading research projects across several disciplines and academic units at the University of Southampton. This aim will be achieved not just by providing the equipment, but also by educating a broad research community about the types of information that can be obtained from X-ray diffraction and reflectivity and how to perform these experiments and analyse data. The equipment will be managed in the first year of operation in a manner designed to maximise opportunities for a large number of researchers to try out experiments with high level support for data colection and analysis. A series of measures have also been designed to ensure that this impact is sustained, including a network of high level users and incentive systems for groups to maintain expertise.
The key user groups are at the forefront of research in new materials deposition, energy conversion and storage, electronics, optoelectronics, engineering materials, oceanography and environmental science. The main impacts felt outside the University will be in enhanced quality outputs from a large number of research projects in these areas. After the initial year of operation, however, it may also be possible to make some time available for selected users from outside the University of Southampton to use the equipment. This would then similarly impact the work of these academic and/or industrial users.
We strongly believe that this proposal will enhance the research quality of many groups and fulfil a critical role in a number of key University and national strategic research themes. In so doing it will provide added value to areas of recent and future investment.
The key user groups are at the forefront of research in new materials deposition, energy conversion and storage, electronics, optoelectronics, engineering materials, oceanography and environmental science. The main impacts felt outside the University will be in enhanced quality outputs from a large number of research projects in these areas. After the initial year of operation, however, it may also be possible to make some time available for selected users from outside the University of Southampton to use the equipment. This would then similarly impact the work of these academic and/or industrial users.
We strongly believe that this proposal will enhance the research quality of many groups and fulfil a critical role in a number of key University and national strategic research themes. In so doing it will provide added value to areas of recent and future investment.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
Andrew Hector (Principal Investigator) | |
Mark Light (Co-Investigator) |
Publications
Zhu Z
(2023)
High Sodium-Ion Battery Capacity in Sulfur-Deficient Tin(II) Sulfide Thin Films with a Microrod Morphology
in Small Structures
Zhang M
(2022)
A La and Nb co-doped BaTiO 3 film with positive-temperature-coefficient of resistance for thermal protection of batteries
in Journal of Materials Chemistry A
Zhang J
(2018)
Effects of ammonolysis and of sol-gel titanium oxide nitride coating on carbon fibres for use in flexible supercapacitors
in Journal of Materials Chemistry A
Wang Q
(2016)
Evolution of structural, mechanical and tribological properties of Ni-P/MWCNT coatings as a function of annealing temperature
in Surface and Coatings Technology
Wang J
(2023)
Self-standing TiC-modified carbon fibre electrodes derived from cellulose and their use as an ultrahigh efficiency lithium metal anode
in Journal of Materials Chemistry A
Wallace A
(2022)
Anodic Sb2S3 electrodeposition from a single source precursor for resistive random-access memory devices
in Electrochimica Acta
Thomas S
(2020)
Electrodeposition of MoS 2 from Dichloromethane
in Journal of The Electrochemical Society
Stehlik M
(2022)
Sub-picosecond 1030 nm laser-induced damage threshold evaluation of pulsed-laser deposited sesquioxide thin films
in Optical Engineering
Stehlik M
(2022)
Sub-picosecond 1030 nm laser-induced damage threshold evaluation of pulsed-laser deposited sesquioxide thin films
in Optical Engineering
Soulé S
(2022)
Confining the growth of mesoporous silica films into nanospaces: towards surface nanopatterning.
in Nanoscale advances
Smith D
(2020)
Thioether complexes of WSCl 4 , WOCl 4 and WSCl 3 and evaluation of thiochloride complexes as CVD precursors for WS 2 thin films
in Dalton Transactions
Shaw A
(2019)
The effect of organoclay loading and matrix morphology on charge transport and dielectric breakdown in an ethylene-based polymer blend
in Journal of Materials Science
Shao L
(2023)
Fractal-like gold nanonetworks formed by templated electrodeposition through 3D-mesoporous silica films
in RSC Advances
Shafiee S
(2019)
Solid molybdenum nitride microdisc electrodes: Fabrication, characterisation, and application to the reduction of peroxodisulfate
in Electrochimica Acta
Sethi V
(2023)
Ultralow Thermal Conductivity and Improved Thermoelectric Properties of Al-Doped ZnO by In Situ O 2 Plasma Treatment
in Small Structures
Sethi V
(2023)
Tungsten dichalcogenide WS 2 x Se 2-2 x films via single source precursor low-pressure CVD and their (thermo-)electric properties
in Journal of Materials Chemistry A
Robinson F
(2021)
Low-Pressure CVD of GeE (E = Te, Se, S) Thin Films from Alkylgermanium Chalcogenolate Precursors and Effect of Deposition Temperature on the Thermoelectric Performance of GeTe.
in ACS applied materials & interfaces
Robinson F
(2021)
Low temperature CVD of thermoelectric SnTe thin films from the single source precursor, [nBu3Sn(TenBu)].
in Dalton transactions (Cambridge, England : 2003)
Robinson F
(2021)
n Bu 2 Sn(S n Bu) 2 and n Bu 3 SnE n Bu (E = S or Se) - effective single source precursors for the CVD of SnS and SnSe thermoelectric thin films
in Materials Advances
Robertson C
(2015)
Ordered mesoporous silica films with pores oriented perpendicular to a titanium nitride substrate.
in Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP
Robertson C
(2016)
Surface modification and porosimetry of vertically aligned hexagonal mesoporous silica films
in RSC Advances
Robertson C
(2016)
Surface modification and porosimetry of vertically aligned hexagonal mesoporous silica films
in RSC Advances
Regoutz A
(2015)
Role and Optimization of the Active Oxide Layer in TiO 2 -Based RRAM
in Advanced Functional Materials
Reeves S
(2020)
Chloroantimonate electrochemistry in dichloromethane
in Electrochimica Acta
Rees K
(2018)
Combining single source chemical vapour deposition precursors to explore the phase space of titanium oxynitride thin films.
in Dalton transactions (Cambridge, England : 2003)
Pérez-Rodríguez S
(2022)
LiFePO4 Battery Material for the Production of Lithium from Brines: Effect of Brine Composition and Benefits of Dilution.
in ChemSusChem
Prentice J
(2018)
Yb-doped mixed-sesquioxide films grown by pulsed laser deposition
in Journal of Crystal Growth
Platt NJ
(2017)
Order of magnitude increase in photocatalytic rate for hierarchically porous anatase thin films synthesized from zinc titanate coatings.
in Dalton transactions (Cambridge, England : 2003)
Newbrook D
(2020)
Improved thermoelectric performance of Bi2Se3 alloyed Bi2Te3 thin films via low pressure chemical vapour deposition
in Journal of Alloys and Compounds
Newbrook D
(2020)
Selective Chemical Vapor Deposition Approach for Sb 2 Te 3 Thin Film Micro-thermoelectric Generators
in ACS Applied Energy Materials
Nasir T
(2022)
Mesoporous silica films as hard templates for electrodeposition of nanostructured gold.
in Nanoscale advances
Morgan K
(2014)
Total Dose Hardness of <formula formulatype="inline"> <tex Notation="TeX">${\rm TiN}/{\rm HfO}_{\rm x}/{\rm TiN}$</tex></formula> Resistive Random Access Memory
in IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science
Monclús M
(2017)
Selective oxidation-induced strengthening of Zr/Nb nanoscale multilayers
in Acta Materialia
Monclús M
(2017)
Effect of layer thickness on the mechanical behaviour of oxidation-strengthened Zr/Nb nanoscale multilayers
in Journal of Materials Science
Mohamed NAN
(2023)
Effects of surfactant head group modification on vertically oriented mesoporous silica produced by the electrochemically assisted surfactant assembly method.
in Nanoscale advances
Mohamed NAN
(2022)
Increasing the Diameter of Vertically Aligned, Hexagonally Ordered Pores in Mesoporous Silica Thin Films.
in Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids
Moehl GE
(2024)
Film before aggregates: an operando GISAXS study on electrochemically assisted surfactant assembly.
in Nanoscale
Moehl GE
(2022)
AC-assisted deposition of aggregate free silica films with vertical pore structure.
in Nanoscale
Moehl GE
(2020)
Using GISAXS to Detect Correlations between the Locations of Gold Particles Electrodeposited from an Aqueous Solution.
in Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids
Mittal V
(2015)
Fabrication and characterization of high-contrast mid-infrared GeTe4 channel waveguides.
in Optics letters
Mittal V
(2017)
Optical quality ZnSe films and low loss waveguides on Si substrates for mid-infrared applications
in Optical Materials Express
Mirabal-Rojas R
(2018)
Effect of the addition of Si into V2O5 coatings: Structure and tribo-mechanical properties
in Surface and Coatings Technology
Meng L
(2019)
Electrodeposition of bismuth telluride from a weakly coordinating, non-aqueous solution
in Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry
Lodge AW
(2018)
Electrodeposition of tin nanowires from a dichloromethane based electrolyte.
in RSC advances
Description | The grant was used to support the development of a diffractometer funded through an EPSRC strategic equipment award. The instrument is now heavily used by research groups from three different faculties and also for some commercial work. This part of the funding supported consumables and other minor items during the start up period when users were initially being trained. |
Exploitation Route | n/a |
Sectors | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Chemicals,Electronics,Energy,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
Description | In addition to the academic results, a small number of companies have begun to use the facility. This has largely been linked to the thin film capability. |
First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Electronics,Energy,Manufacturing, including Industrial Biotechology |
Impact Types | Economic |
Description | EPSRC Programme Grant |
Amount | £6,331,952 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/N035437/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 07/2016 |
End | 07/2021 |