TY - JOUR A1 - Chambers, M. S. A1 - Hunter, R. D. A1 - Hollamby, M. J. A1 - Pauw, Brian Richard A1 - Smith, A. J. A1 - Snow, T. A1 - Danks, A. E. A1 - Schnepp, Z. T1 - In Situ and Ex Situ X‑ray Diffraction and Small-Angle X‑ray Scattering Investigations of the Sol−Gel Synthesis of Fe3N and Fe3C JF - Inorganic Chemistry N2 - Iron nitride (Fe3N) and iron carbide (Fe3C) nanoparticles can be prepared via sol−gel synthesis. While sol−gel methods are simple, it can be difficult to control the crystalline composition, i.e., to achieve a Rietveld-pure product. In a previous in situ synchrotron study of the sol−gel synthesis of Fe3N/Fe3C, we showed that the reaction proceeds as follows: Fe3O4 → FeOx → Fe3N → Fe3C. There was considerable overlap between the different phases, but we were unable to ascertain whether this was due to the experimental setup (side-on heating of a quartz capillary which could lead to thermal gradients) or whether individual particle reactions proceed at different rates. In this paper, we use in situ wide- and small-angle X-ray scattering (wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) and small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS)) to demonstrate that the overlapping phases are indeed due to variable reaction rates. While the initial oxide nanoparticles have a small range of diameters, the size range expands considerably and very rapidly during the oxide−nitride transition. This has implications for the isolation of Rietveld-pure Fe3N, and in an extensive laboratory study, we were indeed unable to isolate phasepure Fe3N. However, we made the surprising discovery that Rietveld-pure Fe3C nanoparticles can be produced at 500 °C with a sufficient furnace dwell time. This is considerably lower than the previous reports of the sol−gel synthesis of Fe3C nanoparticles. KW - Small-angle X-ray Scattering KW - SAXS KW - Diffraction KW - XRD KW - Scattering KW - Sol-gel KW - Iron nitride KW - Nanoparticles KW - Iron carbide KW - Catalyst KW - In-situ KW - Ex-situ KW - Synthesis KW - Synchrotron PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-548226 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.1c03442 VL - 61 IS - 18 SP - 6742 EP - 6749 PB - ACS Publications CY - Washington AN - OPUS4-54822 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kohlbrecher, J. A1 - Breßler, Ingo T1 - Updates in SASfit for fitting analytical expressions and numerical models to small-angle scattering patterns JF - Journal of applied crystallography N2 - Small-angle scattering is an increasingly common method for characterizing particle ensembles in a wide variety of sample types and for diverse areas of application. SASfit has been one of the most comprehensive and flexible curve-fitting programs for decades, with many specialized tools for various fields. Here, a selection of enhancements and additions to the SASfit program are presented that may be of great benefit to interested and advanced users alike: (a) further development of the technical basis of the program, such as new numerical algorithms currently in use, a continuous integration practice for automated building and packaging of the software, and upgrades on the plug-in system for easier adoption by third-party developers; (b) a selection of new form factors for anisotropic scattering patterns and updates to existing form factors to account for multiple scattering effects; (c) a new type of a very flexible distribution called metalog [Keelin (2016). Decis. Anal. 13, 243–277], and regularization techniques such as the expectation-maximization method [Dempster et al. (1977). J. R. Stat. Soc. Ser. B (Methodological), 39, 1–22; Richardson (1972) J. Opt. Soc. Am. 62, 55; Lucy (1974). Astron. J. 79, 745; Lucy (1994). Astron. Astrophys. 289, 983–994], which is compared with fits of analytical size distributions via the non-linear least-squares method; and (d) new structure factors, especially for ordered nano- and meso-scaled material systems, as well as the Ornstein–Zernike solver for numerical determination of particle interactions and the resulting structure factor when no analytical solution is available, with the aim of incorporating its effects into the small-angle scattering intensity model used for fitting with SASfit. KW - Small-angle scattering KW - Numerical models KW - Structure factors KW - Regularization KW - SAXS KW - SANS PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-565069 DO - https://doi.org/10.1107/S1600576722009037 SN - 0021-8898 SN - 1600-5767 VL - 55 IS - 6 SP - 1677 EP - 1688 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Oxford AN - OPUS4-56506 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Zou, T. A1 - Nonappa, N. A1 - Khavani, M. A1 - Vuorte, M. A1 - Penttilä, P. A1 - Zitting, A. A1 - Valle-Delgado, J. J. A1 - Elert, Anna Maria A1 - Silbernagl, Dorothee A1 - Balakshin, M. A1 - Sammalkorpi, M. A1 - Österberg, M. T1 - Experimental and Simulation Study of the Solvent Effects on the Intrinsic Properties of Spherical Lignin Nanoparticles JF - The journal of physical chemistry. B N2 - Spherical lignin nanoparticles (LNPs) fabricated via nanoprecipitation of dissolved lignin are among the most attractive biomass-derived nanomaterials. Despite various studies exploring the methods to improve the uniformity of LNPs or seeking more application opportunities for LNPs, little attention has been given to the fundamental aspects of the solvent effects on the intrinsic properties of LNPs. In this study, we employed a variety of experimental techniques and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to investigate the solvent effects on the intrinsic properties of LNPs. The LNPs were prepared from softwood Kraft lignin (SKL) using the binary solvents of aqueous acetone or aqueous tetrahydrofuran (THF) via nanoprecipitation. The internal morphology, porosity, and mechanical properties of the LNPs were analyzed with electron tomography (ET), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and intermodulation AFM (ImAFM). We found that aqueous acetone resulted in smaller LNPs with higher uniformity compared to aqueous THF, mainly ascribing to stronger solvent−lignin interactions as suggested by MD simulation results and confirmed with aqueous 1,4-dioxane (DXN) and aqueous dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). More importantly, we report that both LNPs were compact particles with relatively homogeneous density distribution and very low porosity in the internal structure. The stiffness of the particles was independent of the size, and the Young’s modulus was in the range of 0.3−4 GPa. Overall, the fundamental understandings of LNPs gained in this study are essential for the design of LNPs with optimal performance in applications. KW - Lignin KW - Electron tomography KW - Intermodulation AFM KW - Modulus KW - SAXS PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-546948 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.1c05319 SN - 1520-5207 VL - 125 IS - 44 SP - 12315 EP - 12328 PB - ACS AN - OPUS4-54694 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Crouzier, L. A1 - Feltin, N. A1 - Delvallée, A. A1 - Pellegrino, Francesco A1 - Maurino, V. A1 - Cios, Grzegorz A1 - Tokarski, T. A1 - Salzmann, Christoph A1 - Deumer, J. A1 - Gollwitzer, C. A1 - Hodoroaba, Vasile-Dan T1 - Correlative analysis of the dimensional properties of bipyramidal titania nanoparticles by complementing electron microscopy with other methods JF - Nanomaterials N2 - In this paper, the accurate determination of the size and size distribution of bipyramidal anatase nanoparticles (NPs) after deposition as single particles on a silicon substrate by correlative Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) analysis is described as a new measurement procedure for metrological purposes. The knowledge of the exact orientation of the NPs is a crucial step in extracting the real 3D dimensions of the particles. Two approaches are proposed to determine the geometrical orientation of individual nano‐bipyramides: (i) AFM profiling along the long bipyramid axis and (ii) stage tilting followed by SEM imaging. Furthermore, a recently developed method, Transmission Kikuchi Diffraction (TKD), which needs preparation of the crystalline NPs on electron‐transparent substrates such as TEM grids, has been tested with respect to its capability of identifying the geometrical orientation of the individual NPs. With the NPs prepared homogeneously on a TEM grid, the transmission mode in a SEM, i.e., STEM‐in‐SEM (or T‐SEM), can be also applied to extract accurate projection dimensions of the nanoparticles from the same sample area as that analysed by SEM, TKD and possibly AFM. Finally, Small Angle X‐ray Scattering (SAXS) can be used as an ensemble technique able to measure the NPs in liquid suspension and, with ab‐initio knowledge of the NP shape from the descriptive imaging techniques, to provide traceable NP size distribution and particle concentration. KW - Nanoparticles KW - Complex-shape KW - Bipyramid KW - Electron microscopy KW - AFM KW - Size measurements KW - TKD KW - STEM-in-SEM KW - SAXS KW - Nanoparticle concentration KW - Correlative analysis PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-539888 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11123359 SN - 2079-4991 VL - 11 IS - 12 SP - 1 EP - 19 PB - MDPI CY - Basel AN - OPUS4-53988 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Friberg, I. A1 - Clark, A. H. A1 - Ho, P. A1 - Sadokhina, N. A1 - Smales, Glen Jacob A1 - Woo, J. A1 - Auray, X. A1 - Ferri, D. A1 - Nachtegaal, M. A1 - Krocher, O. A1 - Olsson, L. T1 - Structure and performance of zeolite supported Pd for complete methane oxidation JF - Catalysis Today N2 - The influence of zeolite support materials and their impact on CH4 oxidation activity was studied utilizing Pd supported on H-beta and H-SSZ-13. A correlation between CH4 oxidation activity, Si/Al ratio (SAR), the type of zeolite framework, reduction-oxidation behaviour, and Pd species present was found by combining catalytic activity measurements with a variety of characterization methods (operando XAS, NH3-TPD, SAXS, STEM and NaCl titration). Operando XAS analysis indicated that catalysts with high CH4 oxidation activity experienced rapid transitions between metallic- and oxidized-Pd states when switching between rich and lean conditions. This behaviour was exhibited by catalysts with dispersed Pd particles. By contrast, the formation of ion-exchanged Pd2+ and large Pd particles appeared to have a detrimental effect on the oxidation-reduction behaviour and the conversion of CH4. The formation of ion-exchanged Pd2+ and large Pd particles was limited by using a highly siliceous beta zeolite support with a low capacity for cation exchange. The same effect was also found using a small-pore SSZ-13 zeolite due to the lower mobility of Pd species. It was found that the zeolite support material should be carefully selected so that the well-dispersed Pd particles remain, and the formation of ion-exchanged Pd2+ is minimized. KW - SAXS KW - Zeolites KW - Methane Oxidation KW - XAS KW - Catalysis PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-529606 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cattod.2020.11.026 VL - 382 SP - 3 EP - 12 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-52960 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wang, Z. A1 - Villa Santos, C. A1 - Legrand, A. A1 - Haase, F. A1 - Hara, Y. A1 - Kanamori, K. A1 - Aoyama, T. A1 - Urayama, K. A1 - Doherty, C. M. A1 - Smales, Glen Jacob A1 - Pauw, Brian Richard A1 - Colon, Y. J. A1 - Furukawa, S. T1 - Multiscale structural control of linked metal–organic polyhedra gel by aging-induced linkage-reorganization JF - Chemical science N2 - Assembly of permanently porous metal–organic polyhedra/cages (MOPs) with bifunctional linkers leads to soft supramolecular networks featuring both porosity and processability. However, the amorphous nature of such soft materials complicates their characterization and thus limits rational structural control. Here we demonstrate that aging is an effective strategy to control the hierarchical network of supramolecular gels, which are assembled from organic ligands as linkers and MOPs as junctions. Normally, the initial gel formation by rapid gelation leads to a kinetically trapped structure with low controllability. Through a controlled post-synthetic aging process, we show that it is possible to tune the network of the linked MOP gel over multiple length scales. This process allows control on the molecular-scale rearrangement of interlinking MOPs, mesoscale fusion of colloidal particles and macroscale densification of the whole colloidal network. In this work we elucidate the relationships between the gel properties, such as porosity and rheology, and their hierarchical structures, which suggest that porosity measurement of the dried gels can be used as a powerful tool to characterize the microscale structural transition of their corresponding gels. This aging strategy can be applied in other supramolecular polymer systems particularly containing kinetically controlled structures and shows an opportunity to engineer the structure and the permanent porosity of amorphous materials for further applications. KW - SAXS KW - Metal-organic polyhedra KW - Structural control PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-532309 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/d1sc02883a SN - 1478-6524 SN - 1742-2183 VL - 12 IS - 38 SP - NIL_1 EP - NIL_9 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge AN - OPUS4-53230 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Smales, Glen Jacob A1 - Pauw, Brian Richard T1 - The MOUSE project: A meticulous approach for obtaining traceable, wide-range X-ray scattering information JF - Journal of instrumentation N2 - Herein, we provide a "systems architecture"-like overview and detailed discussions of the methodological and instrumental components that, together, comprise the "MOUSE" project (Methodology Optimization for UltrafineStructure Exploration). The MOUSE project provides scattering information on a wide variety of samples, with traceable dimensions for both the scattering vector (q) and the absolute scattering cross-section (I). The measurable scattering vector-range of 0.012≤ q (nm-1) ≤ 92, allows information across a hierarchy of structures with dimensions ranging from ca. 0.1 to 400 nm. In addition to details that comprise the MOUSE project, such as the organisation and traceable aspects, several representative examples are provided to demonstrate its flexibility. These include measurements on alumina membranes, the tobacco mosaic virus, and dual-source information that overcomes fluorescence limitations on ZIF-8 and iron-oxide-containing carbon catalyst materials. KW - X-ray scattering KW - MOUSE KW - Instrumentation KW - SAXS KW - Methodology KW - Traceability KW - Wide-range KW - Data curation KW - FAIR KW - Uncertainties KW - Nanomaterials KW - Nanometrology PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-528669 DO - https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/16/06/P06034 VL - 16 IS - 6 SP - 1 EP - 50 PB - IOP CY - Bristol, UK AN - OPUS4-52866 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Henning, L. M. A1 - Müller, J. T. A1 - Smales, Glen Jacob A1 - Pauw, Brian Richard A1 - Schmidt, J. A1 - Bekheet, M. F. A1 - Gurlo, A. A1 - Simon, U. T1 - Hierarchically porous and mechanically stable monoliths from ordered mesoporous silica and their water filtration potential JF - Nanoscale Advances N2 - Mechanically stable structures with interconnected hierarchical porosity combine the benefits of both small and large pores, such as high surface area, pore volume, and good mass transport capabilities. Hence, lightweight micro-/meso-/macroporous monoliths are prepared from ordered mesoporous silica COK-12 by means of spark plasma sintering (SPS, S-sintering) and compared to conventionally (C-) sintered monoliths. A multi-scale model is developed to fit the small angle X-ray scattering data and obtain information on the hexagonal lattice parameters, pore sizes from the macro to the micro range, as well as the dimensions of the silica population. For both sintering techniques, the overall mesoporosity, hexagonal pore ordering, and amorphous character are preserved. The monoliths' porosity (77–49%), mesopore size (6.2–5.2 nm), pore volume (0.50–0.22 g cm-3 ), and specific surface area (451–180 m2 g-1) decrease with increasing processing temperature and pressure. While the difference in porosity is enhanced, the structural parameters between the C-and S-sintered monoliths are largely converging at 900 C, except for the mesopore size and lattice parameter, whose dimensions are more extensively preserved in the S-sintered monoliths, however, coming along with larger deviations from the theoretical lattice. Their higher mechanical properties (biaxial strength up to 49 MPa, 724 MPa HV 9.807 N) at comparable porosities and ability to withstand ultrasonic treatment and dead-end filtration up to 7 bar allow S-sintered monoliths to reach a high permeance (2634 L m-2 h-1 bar-1), permeability (1.25 x 10^-14 m2), and ability to reduce the chemical oxygen demand by 90% during filtration of a surfactant-stabilized oil in water emulsion, while indicating reasonable resistance towards fouling. KW - SAXS KW - Hierarchically porous KW - Silica KW - Water filtration PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-555928 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/D2NA00368F SN - 2516-0230 SP - 1 EP - 17 PB - Royal Society of Chemistry CY - Cambridge AN - OPUS4-55592 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Deumer, J. A1 - Pauw, Brian Richard A1 - Marguet, S. A1 - Skroblin, D. A1 - Taché, O. A1 - Krumrey, M. A1 - Gollwitzer, C. T1 - Small-angle X-ray scattering: characterization of cubic Au nanoparticles using Debye’s scattering formula JF - Journal of Applied Crystallography N2 - A versatile software package in the form of a Python extension, named CDEF (computing Debye’s scattering formula for extraordinary form factors), is proposed to calculate approximate scattering profiles of arbitrarily shaped nanoparticles for small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). CDEF generates a quasi-randomly distributed point cloud in the desired particle shape and then applies the open-source software DEBYER for efficient evaluation of Debye’s scattering formula to calculate the SAXS pattern (https://github.com/j-from-b/CDEF). If self-correlation of the scattering signal is not omitted, the quasi-random distribution provides faster convergence compared with a true-random distribution of the scatterers, especially at higher momentum transfer. The usage of the software is demonstrated for the evaluation of scattering data of Au nanocubes with rounded edges, which were measured at the four-crystal monochromator beamline of PTB at the synchrotron radiation facility BESSY II in Berlin. The implementation is fast enough to run on a single desktop computer and perform model fits within minutes. The accuracy of the method was analyzed by comparison with analytically known form factors and verified with another implementation, the SPONGE, based on a similar principle with fewer approximations. Additionally, the SPONGE coupled to McSAS3 allows one to retrieve information on the uncertainty of the size distribution using a Monte Carlo uncertainty estimation algorithm. KW - X-ray scattering KW - SAXS KW - Non-spherical nanoparticles KW - Nanoparticles KW - Nanomaterials KW - Debye scattering equation KW - Simulation KW - Data fitting PY - 2022 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-557652 DO - https://doi.org/10.1107/S160057672200499X VL - 55 IS - Pt 4 SP - 993 EP - 1001 PB - International Union of Crystallography CY - Chester, England AN - OPUS4-55765 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kool, L. A1 - Dekker, F. A1 - Bunschoten, A. A1 - Smales, Glen Jacob A1 - Pauw, Brian Richard A1 - Velders, A. H. A1 - Saggiomo, V. T1 - Gold and silver dichroic nanocomposite in the quest for 3D printing the Lycurgus cup JF - Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology N2 - The Lycurgus cup is an ancient glass artefact that shows dichroism as it looks green when a white light is reflected on it and a red colouring appears when a white light is transmitted through it. This peculiar dichroic effect is due to silver and gold nanoparticles present in the glass. In this research we show the synthesis of dichroic silver nanoparticles and their embedding in a 3D printable nanocomposite. The addition of gold nanoparticles to the silver nanoparticle composite, gave a 3D printable nanocomposite with the same dichroism effect of the Lycurgus cup. KW - SAXS KW - Au KW - Ag KW - Nanocomposite KW - 3D printing PY - 2020 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-501831 DO - https://doi.org/10.3762/bjnano.11.2 SP - 16 EP - 23 AN - OPUS4-50183 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -