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
Newbrook D
(2020)
Selective Chemical Vapor Deposition Approach for Sb 2 Te 3 Thin Film Micro-thermoelectric Generators
in ACS Applied Energy Materials
Cheng H
(2020)
Synthesis of Vanadium Nitride-Hard Carbon Composites from Cellulose and Their Performance for Sodium-Ion Batteries
in ACS Applied Energy Materials
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
Cicvaric K
(2020)
Thermoelectric Properties of Bismuth Telluride Thin Films Electrodeposited from a Nonaqueous Solution.
in ACS omega
Callisti M
(2017)
Combined size and texture-dependent deformation and strengthening mechanisms in Zr/Nb nano-multilayers
in Acta Materialia
Monclús M
(2017)
Selective oxidation-induced strengthening of Zr/Nb nanoscale multilayers
in Acta Materialia
Regoutz A
(2015)
Role and Optimization of the Active Oxide Layer in TiO 2 -Based RRAM
in Advanced Functional Materials
Govindassamy G
(2022)
Effect of laser repetition rate on the growth of Sc2O3 via pulsed laser deposition
in Applied Physics A
Cortese S
(2016)
An amorphous titanium dioxide metal insulator metal selector device for resistive random access memory crossbar arrays with tunable voltage margin
in Applied Physics Letters
Cummings C
(2016)
Electrodeposition of Protocrystalline Germanium from Supercritical Difluoromethane
in ChemElectroChem
Homewood T
(2018)
Using polyoxometalates to enhance the capacity of lithium-oxygen batteries.
in Chemical communications (Cambridge, England)
Bartlett PN
(2016)
A Versatile Precursor System for Supercritical Fluid Electrodeposition of Main-Group Materials.
in Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany)
Pérez-Rodríguez S
(2022)
LiFePO4 Battery Material for the Production of Lithium from Brines: Effect of Brine Composition and Benefits of Dilution.
in ChemSusChem
Lampkin J
(2020)
A Critical Evaluation of the Effect of Electrode Thickness and Side Reactions on Electrolytes for Aluminum-Sulfur Batteries.
in ChemSusChem
Harito C
(2017)
Titanate nanotubes and nanosheets as a mechanical reinforcement of water-soluble polyamic acid: Experimental and theoretical studies
in Composites Part B: Engineering
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
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)
Chang YP
(2018)
Synthesis and properties of MoCl4 complexes with thio- and seleno-ethers and their use for chemical vapour deposition of MoSe2 and MoS2 films.
in Dalton transactions (Cambridge, England : 2003)
Benjamin SL
(2014)
Niobium(V) and tantalum(V) halide chalcogenoether complexes--towards single source CVD precursors for ME2 thin films.
in Dalton transactions (Cambridge, England : 2003)
Hawken SL
(2018)
[Ge(TenBu)4] - a single source precursor for the chemical vapour deposition of germanium telluride thin films.
in Dalton transactions (Cambridge, England : 2003)
Robinson F
(2021)
Low temperature CVD of thermoelectric SnTe thin films from the single source precursor, [nBu3Sn(TenBu)].
in Dalton transactions (Cambridge, England : 2003)
Chang YP
(2017)
Chalcogenoether complexes of Nb(v) thio- and seleno-halides as single source precursors for low pressure chemical vapour deposition of NbS2 and NbSe2 thin films.
in Dalton transactions (Cambridge, England : 2003)
Greenacre VK
(2022)
Tungsten(VI) selenide tetrachloride, WSeCl4 - synthesis, properties, coordination complexes and application of [WSeCl4(SenBu2)] for CVD growth of WSe2 thin films.
in Dalton transactions (Cambridge, England : 2003)
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)
Gurnani C
(2018)
Tin(iv) chalcogenoether complexes as single source precursors for the chemical vapour deposition of SnE2 and SnE (E = S, Se) thin films.
in Dalton transactions (Cambridge, England : 2003)
Lei C
(2016)
Electrochemical deposition of bismuth telluride thick layers onto nickel
in Electrochemistry Communications
Burton M
(2017)
A novel route to nanostructured bismuth telluride films by electrodeposition
in Electrochemistry Communications
Shafiee S
(2019)
Solid molybdenum nitride microdisc electrodes: Fabrication, characterisation, and application to the reduction of peroxodisulfate
in Electrochimica Acta
Reeves S
(2020)
Chloroantimonate electrochemistry in dichloromethane
in Electrochimica Acta
Wallace A
(2022)
Anodic Sb2S3 electrodeposition from a single source precursor for resistive random-access memory devices
in Electrochimica Acta
Littlejohns C
(2015)
Ge-on-Si Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition for Low-Cost Photodetectors
in IEEE Photonics Journal
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
Cheng H
(2019)
Synthesis of Hard Carbon-TiN/TiC Composites by Reacting Cellulose with TiCl4 Followed by Carbothermal Nitridation/Reduction.
in Inorganic chemistry
Newbrook D
(2020)
Improved thermoelectric performance of Bi2Se3 alloyed Bi2Te3 thin films via low pressure chemical vapour deposition
in Journal of Alloys and Compounds
Callisti M
(2018)
In situ TEM observations on the structural evolution of a nanocrystalline W-Ti alloy at elevated temperatures
in Journal of Alloys and Compounds
Prentice J
(2018)
Yb-doped mixed-sesquioxide films grown by pulsed laser deposition
in Journal of Crystal Growth
Meng L
(2019)
Electrodeposition of bismuth telluride from a weakly coordinating, non-aqueous solution
in Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry
Black A
(2023)
Temperature effects on the electrodeposition of semiconductors from a weakly coordinating solvent
in Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry
De Lourdes Gonzalez-Juarez M
(2020)
Electrochemical deposition and thermoelectric characterisation of a semiconducting 2-D metal-organic framework thin film
in Journal of Materials Chemistry A
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
Benjamin S
(2014)
Controlling the nanostructure of bismuth telluride by selective chemical vapour deposition from a single source precursor
in Journal of Materials Chemistry A
Li X
(2016)
Evaluation of nanocrystalline Sn 3 N 4 derived from ammonolysis of Sn(NEt 2 ) 4 as a negative electrode material for Li-ion and Na-ion batteries
in Journal of Materials Chemistry A
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
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
Gray B
(2017)
Effect of oxidative surface treatments on charge storage at titanium nitride surfaces for supercapacitor applications
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
Fitch S
(2020)
Solvothermal synthesis of Sn 3 N 4 as a high capacity sodium-ion anode: theoretical and experimental study of its storage mechanism
in Journal of Materials Chemistry A
Benjamin S
(2015)
Chemical vapour deposition of antimony chalcogenides with positional and orientational control: precursor design and substrate selectivity
in Journal of Materials Chemistry C
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 |