Small Angle X-Ray Scattering with Microcrystalline Materials

Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) is routinely used for the characterization of liquid crystal-line phases. If the crystalline domains are large and the sample is very viscous the scattering is not averaged over all orientations. The RotorCell enables measuring such samples.

Introduction

The scattering curves of liquid samples are usually averaged over all particles and all possible orienta-tions. This averaging is achieved by the fact that many particles are illuminated at the same time and the particles are diffusing.

Liquid crystalline phases are often highly viscous. They do not undergo diffusive Brownian motion but show gel-like behavior. If the size of the microcrystals is large and only a few crystals fit into the incident beam, no sufficient averaging of all crystal orientations is guaranteed. Only one particular configuration is probed by the SAXS experiment. Rotating the sample cell during the measurement is an efficient way of obtaining the ensemble averaged scattering curve for such samples.

Get the document

To receive this document please enter your email below.

Loading...

Error