Beamline electrostatic levitator for in situ high energy x-ray diffraction studies of levitated solids and liquids

Journal Article · Mon Jul 19 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Rev. Sci. Instrum.

OSTI ID:1008525

Gangopadhyay, A K; Lee, G W; Kelto, K F; Rogers, J R; Goldman, A I; Robinson, D S; Rathz, T J; Hyers, R W ^[1]

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1. WU

Determinations of the phase formation sequence, crystal structures and the thermo-physical properties of materials at high temperatures are hampered by contamination from the sample container and environment. Containerless processing techniques, such as electrostatic (ESL), electromagnetic, aerodynamic, and acoustic levitation, are most suitable for these studies. An adaptation of ESL for in situ structural studies of a wide range of materials using high energy (30-130 keV) x rays at a synchrotron source is described here. This beamline ESL (BESL) allows the in situ determination of the atomic structures of equilibrium solid and liquid phases, undercooled liquids and time-resolved studies of solid-solid and liquid-solid phase transformations. The use of area detectors enables the rapid acquisition of complete diffraction patterns over a wide range (0.5-14 {angstrom}{sup -1}) of reciprocal space. The wide temperature range (300-2500 K), containerless processing environment under high vacuum (10{sup -7}-10{sup -8} Torr), and fast data acquisition capability, make BESL particularly well suited for phase stability studies of high temperature solids and liquids. An additional, but important, feature of BESL is the capability for simultaneous measurements of a host of thermo-physical properties including the specific heat, enthalpy of transformation, solidus and liquidus temperatures, density, viscosity, and surface tension, all on the same sample during the structural measurements.

• Research Organization: Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• OSTI ID: 1008525
• Journal Information: Rev. Sci. Instrum., Journal Name: Rev. Sci. Instrum. Journal Issue: (7) ; 2005 Vol. 76; ISSN 0034-6748; ISSN RSINAK
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: ENGLISH

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS
ACOUSTICS
CONTAINERS
CONTAMINATION
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
DATA ACQUISITION
DIFFRACTION
ELECTROSTATICS
ENTHALPY
LEVITATION
PHASE STABILITY
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
PROCESSING
SPECIFIC HEAT
SURFACE TENSION
SYNCHROTRONS
VISCOSITY
X-RAY DIFFRACTION