Developing efficient, sustainable thermoelectric (TE) devices to harness waste heat is challenging due to the reliance on rare elements in conventional materials. Recently, conducting polymers, particularly Poly(3,4-methylenedioxy thiophene): poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT: PSS) blends, have shown promising TE performance improvements [1]. However, PEDOT has limitations, such as sensitivity to...
In aqueous solution, amphiphilic block copolymers consisting of a short permanently hydrophobic poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and a long thermoresponsive poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide) (PNIPAM) block self-assemble into spherical core-shell micelles. At atmospheric pressure, the micellar shell of PMMA-b-PNIPAM strongly dehydrates and shrinks above the cloud point Tcp of PNIPAM. However,...
As space technologies and space missions develop rapidly, the demand for solar cells dedicated to space applications is increasing. Space solar cells face more critical challenges than before. Higher gravimetric Power Density and better radiation resistance are the primary keys. This project aims to investigate the degradation of organic solar cells in the space environment. Based on previous...
Our group operates and/or develops in-situ 3He polarizers/analyzers for the following instruments: MARIA, KWS1, KWS2, TOPAS, POLI (2x), DREAM (ESS), and TREX (ESS). We are also active in developing polarized neutron beam components and testing. We will present a summary of the status and performance of the various devices.
Low n nuclei with spin are important for understanding spin-dependent portions of 3-body interactions. These three body forces account for about 5% of the nuclear biding energy, but are poorly experimentally constrained. The binding energy of $^4$He for example can only be predicted to about 1% with current theoretical calculations. The polarized n-$^3$He system can be used to probe these...
Polarization analysis provides profound additions in knowledge for the field of soft condensed matter research. The ability to study dynamics of incoherent and coherent scattering contributions separately gives unique information on the cooperative vs local dynamics of a system. The JCNS is interested in exploring new instrumentation ideas as a polarization analysis upgrade to our SPHERES...
Perovskite Quantum Dot Solar Cells (PQDSC) are very promising in contributing to the renewable energy mix of the future. Perovskite Quantum Dot Layers are used as active layer within solar cells due to the quantum confinement which occurs at crystales size below the Bohr radius.[1] Therefore they provide high power conversion efficiencies, high photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY), a narrow...
Strongly correlated electron systems (SCES) summarizes phenomena, which cannot be reconciled with the theory of the free electron gas. Instead, significant interactions between electrons are integral to understand these phenomena, mostly at very low temperatures when the impact of thermal fluctuations is low. On the atomic scale, properties like, e.g. spin orbit coupling, reduced magnetic...
The instrument PERC is currently under construction at the FRM II. Like its predecessors PERKEO II and PERKEO III, it will measure the beta spectra of neutron decay and determine several of its correlation coefficients. It aims to improve the precision by up to one order of magnitude over current best values. This enables testing the Standard Model and search for new physics via effective...
Gold deposition via high power impuls magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS) allows to coat thin metal layers on heat sensitive materials like polymers allowing increased adhesion compared to an evaporated gold layer. In addition, this particular technique allows deposition at a lower deposited thermal energy in comparison to conventional magnetron sputtering. However, the low temperature nucleation...
Organic-inorganic halide perovskites have gained a huge interest in the scientific community owing to their favorable optoelectronic properties combined with their ease of production and abundance of raw materials. [1] In many cases, polycrystalline thin films are used for which thin film crystallinity and morphology are key factors affecting the perovskite’s properties. Various methods have...
Magnetic dipole traps have demonstrated good confinement properties for both non-neutral and quasi-neutral plasmas, making this a highly suitable type of trap for the creation and study of low-temperature, long-lived electron-positron pair plasmas. To generate such a plasma, the APEX (A Positron-Electron eXperiment) Collaboration is planning to inject positrons (supplied by the reactor-based...
As the most essential alternative materials for eco-friendly perovskite solar cells (PSCs), tin-based perovskites have achieved an efficiency of 14.81 %, which is far less than 25.7 % of lead-based champion devices. The main reason is that it is easy to oxidize Sn2+ to Sn4+ in the presence of oxygen and water due to the low stability of the Sn2+ state. The oxidation of Sn2+ will form the Sn...
Organic solar cells (OSCs) are emerging as a promising candidate for space application because of their high gravimetric power density and flexible nature, which would save fuel and space in a rocket flight.
However, several challenges must be addressed for OSCs to fulfil their potential in space. Currently, the main problem is the reduction of the degradation due to the harsh conditions...
Neutron resonant spin-echo (NRSE) and modulation of intensity with zero effort (MIEZE) are variants of the classical neutron spin-echo (NSE) technique, where the large static magnetic field precession coils are replaced with pairs of resonant spin flippers. They operate by producing a static magnetic field and a perpendicular radio frequency (RF) field to achieve a resonant neutron spin flip....
We outline the design and operation of a buffer-gas trap (BGT) for the NEPOMUC positron beam. BGTs use inelastic interactions with nitrogen molecules to efficiently capture positrons from a continuous source. They are invaluable for high-resolution studies of matter-antimatter interactions, antihydrogen research, and positronium laser spectroscopy. The device has been assembled at IPP...
Ordered magnetic hybrid thin films composed of a diblock copolymer (DBC) and magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are interesting due to the mixing of properties from the organic and inorganic precursors. The unique attributes of these hybrid films make them attractive for use in applications ranging from magnetic sensors to magnetic data storage devices. In this study, thin DBC films of...
A testing machine with a load capacity of 100 kN has been developed to conduct comprehensive mechanical assessments encompassing tensile, compression, and fatigue testing on industrially pertinent high-temperature alloys used in aerospace. The machine is developed for in-situ microstructural and mechanical characterization of high-temperature alloys subjected to concurrent mechanical and...
The last pandemic highlighted the importance of understanding the interaction between external sources and eukaryotic membranes. Membrane models have been widely studied, but our knowledge of the interaction between them and external sources is far from fully understood. This gap limits the ability to achieve the next level of selectivity, efficiency, and targeting. Target of respiratory...
Gels represent an industrially important state of matter. Here we study the effect of a simple shear on a colloidal scale gelation process with ultra small and small angle neutron scattering. The structural understanding of the effects of steady state shear on colloidal gelation has largely been inferred from oscillatory rheological studies, an essentially perturbative approach, and...
Plasmonic nanostructures have attracted extensive research interest due to their enhanced light-matter interactions. Plasmonic induced surface plasmon resonance properties enable strong, size- and shape-dependent light absorption and scattering, as well as near-field amplification. Hybrid nanostructures containing self-assembled gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) embedded in a solid matrix of PbS...
Magnetic systems are a fertile ground for the design of novel quantum and topologically non-trivial states characterized by exotic excitations. Examples include spin chain and square-lattice low-dimensional antiferromagnets, quantum spin liquid candidates, spin-ice compounds, and unusual spin textures. Key features of the ground state and finite-temperature behavior of such magnetic systems...
Metal insulation technology is one of the solutions employed to enhance the quench stability of high-temperature superconductor (HTS) coils. This approach offers several advantages for quench stability. Metal substrate facilitates the detection of quenches by allowing electrical voltage signals to be easily measured across the substrate. This feature is crucial for promptly identifying...
The polycrystalline Ni-based superalloy VDM Alloy® 780 is a further development of the Alloy 718 which is limited in the service temperature of gas turbines to around 650°C. The most important differences between these two alloys are essentially the replacement of Fe by Co and a higher Al–content in combination with a lower Ti-content in VDM Alloy® 780. Tensile loading and unloading...
KOMPASS is a new polarized cold-neutron three axes spectrometer (TAS) recently built at the MLZ in Garching. The instrument is designed to exclusively work with polarized neutrons and optimized for zero-field spherical neutron polarization analysis for measuring all elements of the polarization matrix. In contrast to other TASs, KOMPASS is equipped with a unique polarizing guide system. The...
Cellulose, a well-known natural biopolymer, possesses numerous advantages such as cost-effectiveness, renewability, ease of processing, and biodegradability [1]. Due to these inherent merits, cellulose has emerged as a promising bio-based substrate capable of synergistically combining with conductive materials (e.g., metals or carbon-based materials) for diverse applications including sensors,...
Slot-die coated cellulose nanofibrils CNF layers are compact, homogenous, and have a low roughness. These properties give them specific imbibition properties for different colloids. We studied the coating of the novel slot-die coated CNF layer in real-time using grazing incidence small-angle X-ray scattering. We compare the imbibition properties of water and colloidal inks of slot die-coated...
At large-scale facilities, a growing demand for automated measurements in combination with mail-in services for samples has long since been observed. Automatized systems significantly improve the efficiency in the usage of measurement slots, and simultaneously also widen the scope of scientific applications. In particular, they enable to measure large series of samples prepared by different...
Metal oxide interfaces, especially nanostructured titania, play a key role in various energy applications. Achieving controlled morphology at different scales is critical for optimal performance. Nanostructured titania with a high surface-to-volume ratio improves device efficiency. Industrial methods such as spray coating are effective, but often involve unsustainable organic solvents. To...
Wear causes a loss of 2% to 7% of the gross national product in industrialized countries. Therefore, developing wear-resistant coatings and optimizing their manufacturing processes are essential. A novel metal matrix composite (MMC) coating has been developed via laser melting injection (LMI) technique over the last few years, which consists of a bronze matrix and tungsten fused carbides....
Metal Additive manufacturing (AM) allows printing structures of almost any complexity.
Therefore, it is an uprising technique in various industrial sectors like automotive and aerospace. Nevertheless, in the manufacturing method of laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) the used process parameters have a high influence on the final part. They impact texture, residual stress and also the tensile...
STRESS-SPEC is the dedicated diffractometer for materials science applications at MLZ. It offers high thermal neutron flux and is mainly used for fast residual strain and texture (bulk, local or gradient) measurements [1, 2]. Recent upgrades include a new detector system developed in-house, a new fully automatic slit system for gauge volume definition of the monochromatic beam, and a quenching...
Biotemplating is an effective method of nanostructuring hybrid
inorganic-organic materials. This approach allows the tuning of material properties like porosity or domain sizes. Therefore, parameters like
the electronic conductivity can be adjusted for different applications.
In this work, differently structured Titania thin films are investigated
for application in thermoelectric...
High-performance graphite is nowadays on of the most used anode materials in state-of-the-art Li-ion batteries. However, understanding the structural stability of lithiated graphites (Li$_{x}$C$_{6}$ with x<1) and its phase diagram remains limited and complex. In literature, the thermal-resolved phase stability of lithiated graphites is studied poorly and the results are often controversial...
In this presentation, we will give an overview of the current status of the powder diffractometer SPODI, its performance in user service together with future perspectives. In particular, an overview on the research areas and outcome in user service will be provided.
Thermal neutron three axes spectrometer PUMA is characterized by a very high neutron flux as a result of the efficient use of focusing techniques. An innovative option of the spectrometer is the multianalyzer/detector system, which allows a unique and flexible type of multiplexing. Using this option, a scattering angle range of 16° can be measured simultaneously and flexible Q-ω paths can be...
Poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) based microgels are interesting colloidal systems to probe cooperative phenomena such as structural ordering, crystal nucleation, glass formation, etc. They can be packed to effective volume fractions(eff) beyond the hard-sphere close-packing (cp) and their average interparticle distance, as can be smaller than the particle diameter, d[1]. Here, we report the...
The RESEDA instrument, situated at the FRM II facility, operates as a resonant spin-echo spectrometer utilizing the MIEZE (Modulated Intensity with Zero Effort) technique in a longitudinal geometry. While RESEDA offers access to a broad range of energy scales, its optimal resolution for momentum-transfer vectors is primarily concentrated at small scattering angles. Recent advancements have...
Cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) as a bio-based material are very attractive due to their resource-saving and renewable properties. They are biocompatible, flexible, lightweight, transparent, and show excellent mechanical strength. By adding functional properties, they can be used as base material for incorporating photovoltaic or electronic devices in a CNF-based composite material. We are aiming...
It is crucial to suppress the non-radiation recombination in the hole-blocking layer (HBL) and at the interface between the HBL and active layer for performance improvement. Herein, TiOx layers are deposited onto a SnO2 layer via sputter deposition at room temperature, forming a bilayer HBL. The structure evolution of TiOx during sputter deposition is investigated via in situ grazing-incidence...
Perovskite solar cells (PSCs) is a promising technique in energy harvesting. Many reports have been focused on PSCs mainly on the enhancement of the power conversion efficiency (PCE) and stability due to the sensitivity to hydrogen, oxygen and light. So far, the lab-scale PSCs develop rapidly with high PCE and decent stability after many researchers engaging in an effort to optimize the...
RESEDA is the only operational longitudinal MIEZE spectrometer world wide. Therefore, it is impossible to perform out-of-the-box experiments on the subject of entangled neutron beams at any other neutron scattering facility. We tackled this challenge by setting up the RESEDA MIEZE arm at the BOA test beamline located at the Paul Scherrer Institut in Switzerland.
This endeavour was a full...
The third generation β-solidifying TNM alloys with (α2+γ) lamellar microstructures have been considered excellent candidates for modern turbine blades due to their low density, high specific strength and stiffness, excellent creep resistance, and good corrosion resistance. It has been proved that orienting the γ lamellae to the direction of the load can significantly increase the mechanical...
Properties of Gd3+ rare earth ion incorporated MgFe2-xGdxO4 (0 =< x =< 0.16) ceramics prepared from powders using combustion technique with DL- alanine fuel are investigated. Re-arrangement of cations in the unit cell due to Gd3+ substitution for Fe3+ in MgFe2O4, and the consequent effects on the electrical and magnetic properties are discussed. Improvements in electrical resistivity with...
The small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) diffractometer KWS-2, operated by the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science at Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum in Garching, is equipped with an in-line size exclusion chromatography (SEC) followed by the multi-angle light scattering (MALS) machine. The established SEC-SANS-MALS setup facilitates the in-situ fractionation of the sample solution, the...
We propose to implement a new modulation technique at NREX adding time resolution to polarized neutron reflectometry (PNR). The new technique is based on intensity modulation by a radio-frequency (RF) spin flipper, and shares some basic concepts with the MIEZE spin-echo technique. The aim is to resolve the kinetics of the nuclear and magnetic scattering length densities in periodic processes...
We propose to significantly increase the efficiency of TRSIP for high-resolution spectroscopy and Larmor diffraction. Through optimized beam geometry and development of a spin-echo multi-detector, gain factors of 5-50 in counting time are possible. Shorter spin-echo units in combination with new radio-frequency (RF) spin-flippers will provide a larger flux on the sample. The proposed spin-echo...
Robots and cobots (collaborative robots) were designed to change manufacturing and production processes at factories. Typical application of an industrial robot would be to replace a human on repetitive tasks, which involve endurance, speed, and precision. Industrial robots usually operate in environments isolated from human contact. Instead, cobots are designed to provide human robot...
QtiSAS [1, 2] is an open-source cross-platform software designed for the graphical visualization, reduction, analysis, and fit of data. At Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS) it is designed particularly to work on data produced by small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) instruments, however it could also be an alternative to proprietary scientific software like Origin or Igor...
The author will present the actual status of the work at the MEPHISTO beamline. The installation of the neutron guide shielding in the reactor building is progressing and the cooling plant await its compressor housing construction.
Diffraction and imaging using X-rays and neutrons are widely utilized in different fields of engineering, biology, chemistry, and/or materials science. The additional information gained from the diffraction signal by X-ray diffraction and computed tomography (XRD-CT) can give this method a distinct advantage in materials science applications compared to classical tomography. Its active...
Milk and dairy products are common food systems. One of their important constituents is casein micelles (CM) (~10-100 nm) that form extended aggregates, and further develop into a network by the process of gelation. A key structural parameter is the fractal dimension (Df) of this network[1-3]. Scattering and rheology have been explored in the past to access the relevant length scales and Df of...
In this study, we investigated the swelling characteristics of p(AzAm-co-DMAm) and p(AzPyAm-co-DMAm) thin films in both isomer states of the photoswitchable molecules azobenzene (Az) and azopyrazole (AzPy). In thin films, irradiation of the chosen photoresponsive polymers can influence the swelling behavior in water vapor and provide a method to precisely control water uptake, expansion, and...
The high-intensity reflectometer MARIA of JCNS is installed at the neutron guide hall of the FRM II reactor in Garching and it is a state of the art reflectometer at a constant flux reactor. It gives the opportunity to investigate specular reflectivity curves in a broad dynamic range including off-specular scattering and GISANS measurements. The availability of a polarised neutron beam and the...
Hydrogel films made from responsive polymers are able to switch between a swollen (extended polymer chains) and a contracted film state (coiled polymer chains) in response to slight changes in their surroundings. In recent studies, we demonstrated the versatility of a multi-responsive diblock copolymer, containing a zwitterionic poly(sulfobetaine) and a nonionic poly(N-isopropyl acrylamide)...
Hydrogen is one of innovative fuels which storage is a challenge so far. One of options is hydrogen storage in complex-hydride systems, where it is chemically bonded unless a sufficient heating is applied. Main virtues of a hydrogen storage system are: storage capacity, safety of use, reversibility, fast reaction rate and a moderate operation temperature. Amide-hydride mixtures, where...
The performance of organic solar cells (OSC) has got great development due to material design and device engineer, while the poor stability of PSC and toxic solvents during device fabrication are the most two big issues nowadays. Here, we select a green-solvent based material system PBDB-TF-T1:BTP-4F-12, and explore a solid green fluorescent polymer additive EH-P, realizing the full...
Stimuli-responsive polymers hold a prominent position in the field of functional materials due to their remarkable adaptability to changing environmental conditions. Among these, thermo-responsive polymers have gained attention due to the easy access to the temperature parameter. This study investigate Poly(N-isobutyramide) (PNVIBAM) and compare it with its structural isomer,...
Single chain nanoparticles are soft nano-objects made from individual polymer chains crosslinked intramolecularly. Due to the internal random crosslinking between functional groups of the same chain, a sparse conformation is usually achieved which displays many common structural features with intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs). Lately, there has been great interest in expanding SCNPs to...
The PERC facility is currently under construction at the FRM II in Garching, Germany. It will serve as an intense and clean source of electrons and protons from neutron beta decay for precision studies. It aims to improve the measurements of the properties of weak interaction by one order of magnitude and to search for new physics via new effective couplings.
PERC's central component is a 12...
Mesoporous films consisting of zinc titanate have high potential applications in photocatalysis, solar cells, and sensors due to tailoring their semiconductive properties. In the present work, we investigate the morphologies of mesoporous zinc titanate films obtained by changing the ratio of two inorganic precursors after calcining hybrid films consisting of organic-inorganic materials. The...
Ordered porous gold/titanium dioxide (Au/TiO2) hybrid nanostructured films are specifically interesting in large-scale applications using localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). In this work, we investigate the optical response of sputter-deposited Au/TiO2 nanohybrid thin films with a focus on the plasmonic response and application as...
Organic solar cells (OSCs) have been attracting a lot of attention in research in recent years because to their low weight, non-toxicity, and high efficiency. OSCs are particularly appealing to industry due of their easy solution-based fabrication process and therefore the possibility for thin and flexible solar cells. Due to the solution-based fabrication process, the OSCs can be upscaled...
Located at the SR10 at the FRM II, NECTAR is a versatile instrument and designed for the non-destructive inspection of various objects by means of fission neutron radiography and tomography. Compared to the Z-dependency of X-ray and gamma imaging, fission neutrons have the strong advantage of often providing similar contrast for heavy and light materials. Only few facilities around the world...
AgBiS2 colloidal quantum dots (QDs) are a non-toxic alternative for the commonly used PbS QDs for photovoltaic applications. Similar to its PbS QDs, they show great promise due to a tunable bandgap and solution processing. What makes them stand out is the abundance of materials as well as a high absorption coefficient, which enables to reduce the thickness of the active layer to around 35 nm....
Modulation of intensity with zero effort (MIEZE) is a neutron spectroscopy technique with high energy resolution, closely related to the established neutron spin echo (NSE) method. The essential feature of MIEZE is an intensity modulated neutron beam with a focal point (echo point) several meters downstream the sample.
Successful employment of the MIEZE technique requires careful preparation...
Three-axes spectrometers (TAS) are considered one of the most flexible and versatile instruments for inelastic neutron scattering measuring fundamental excitations (phonons, magnons, and crystalline electric field) in materials with sub-meV energy resolution. However, the limitation of a three-axes spectrometer usually comes from the restriction of a point-by-point measurement strategy in the...
REFSANS is the horizontal TOF reflectometer with GISANS Option at the MLZ, designed to enable reflectometry and GISANS studies of any interface, as well as to give simultaneous access to a range of Qz values, which is especially useful to study air-liquid interfaces or kinetic phenomena.
Wavelength resolution may be tuned from 0.2 % up to 10%. The optical system allows to independently...
HEiDi is a versatile single crystal diffractometer using unpolarized thermal and hot neutrons to provide users worldwide with high quality structure data. The applications range from studies on various magnetic compounds [Maity2021, Dutta2023, Zobkalo2023] and new battery materials [Redhammer2021] to complex framework structures [Lotti2023].
Heidi’s high neutron flux allows both studies up...
The world is impatiently waiting for the lithium metal - to finally make a step forward from current battery technology. Safer and higher in energy and power density are the targeted improvements, and while the latter is met by the choice of lithium metal as anode (or more radically, no anode at all), the safety aspect is not as easily reached. The anode interphase was identified long ago as...
The SANS-1 MAX proposal aims both at extending the dynamical Q-range and increasing the maximal momentum transfer Q. The SANS-1 MAX proposal consists of two independent two subprojects. (i) The replacement of the S-bender neutron guide, second selector and the upgrade of the TISANE chopper discs with an optimized version will shift the wavelength cut-off down to ~2.8 Å and allow for a...
Hydrogen will play a major role as a renewable and carbon-free energy carrier. This accordingly also requires the investigation of materials coming in contact with hydrogen in energy conversion devices, e.g. gas turbines. However, such materials, usually nickel-based superalloys, suffer in strength and durability through the so-called hydrogen embrittlement (HE) which is yet to be fully...
Superalloys are key materials of our modern society. They are not only used in harsh environments of power plants for energy conversion but also in aerospace or marine applications, as they combine excellent mechanical properties at high homologous temperatures with very good oxidation and corrosion resistance. To further improve the efficiency of engines, advanced superalloys with improved...
Neutron single crystal diffraction provides an experimental method for the direct location of hydrogen and deuterium atoms in biological macromolecules. At the FRM II neutron source the neutron single crystal diffractometer BIODIFF, a joint project of the Forschungszentrum Jülich and the FRM II, is mainly dedicated to the structure determination of enzymes. Typical scientific questions address...
Kagome magnet RMn6Sn6, [R=Gd-Er] are extensively studied in search of nontrivial magnetic and topological states [1,2]. The strong magnetic coupling in between the metal ion Mn in pristine Kagome bilayers and the rare earth R in triangular lattice framework generates the complex magnetic phases which are favorable for correlated topological states [3,4]. Here in this work, the pressure...
Mesoporous transition metal oxide has attracted a lot of interest due to its excellent properties. Block copolymers with sol-gel is one of the popular approaches to fabricate mesoporous transition metal oxides. In this work, titania thin films are synthesized with the sol-gel method templated by a diblock copolymer. A similar morphology transition, from worm-shaped mesopores to ordered...
The lithium garnet Li7La3Zr2O12 (LLZO) is a leading solid state electrolyte candidate for an All-solid-state battery (ASSB) containing Li as anode because of its high ionic conductivity, high toughness and wide electrochemical stability. Undoped LLZO exists in two polymorphic phases; a low conductivity tetragonal phase and a high conductivity cubic phase. Dopants in LLZO play a critical role...
The Data Evaluation Group DEVA at MLZ is a team of scientists with many years of experience in selected neutron and X-ray methods. DEVA was established in 2022 with the goal of guiding and actively supporting the user community, with a focus on new users. This includes data analysis and data reduction, assistance in extracting further knowledge from the acquired data, and support in the...
Within the DAPHNE4NFDI project the MLZ is enganged in establishing a datacalougue to foster FAIR access to the data produced at the MLZ.
We will give an overview over the technical aspects of the implementation of such a catalogue at MLZ.
Electrochemical cycling of lithium-ion batteries proceeds through an active exchange of lithium ions and electrons between the cathode and anode materials. Besides material properties, such exchange is facilitated by cell parameters like electrode dimensions and geometry, current density, temperature, pressure, reaction rate etc. Such parameters are neither uniformly distributed nor static in...
With each year, the demand for Li-ion batteries is increasing – whether it is for industrial applications or electric vehicles – and improving battery performances remains one of the main goals of the research. Currently, switching to materials offering higher energy is one approach to achieve higher capacities. Silicon has gained much interest as anode material due to its high specific...
KWS-3 is a very small angle neutron scattering diffractometer operated by JCNS at Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ) in Garching, Germany. The principle of this instrument is one-to-one imaging of an entrance aperture onto a 2D position sensitive detector by neutron reflection from a double-focusing toroidal mirror. In current state, KWS-3 is covering Q-range between 3·10-5 and 2·10-2 Å-1 and...
Binders play an important role in multi-component electrodes for rechargeable batteries, which suffer from poor electronic and ionic conductivity. Binder-free electrodes provide another way to resolve problems, where sophisticated structure construction is required. A new concept of electrode processing alternative to binder-containing and binder-free electrodes was established. A...
We studied how we can improve the analytical sensitivity of prompt gamma activation analysis using the most advanced gamma-spectrometry system, FIPPS/IFIN at ILL. The high counting efficiency and the coincidence possibility with altogether 64 HPGe detectors offer a unique opportunity to unfold the spectra where a strong matrix masks the weak signal from trace components, like Cl a highly...
Hydrated proteins undergo a dynamical transition (DT) at Td ≈ 200 K. The transition is associated with the activation of protein dynamics on the ps-ns time scale, suitably detected by Elastic Incoherent Neutron Scattering (EINS). The DT has been also observed in other biomolecules and is deemed necessary for biological functionality. Surprisingly, a DT has been recently found in a...
Flexible organic photovoltaics make use of polymer-based materials. A novel development is to combine cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) for fabricating sustainable, flexible, multifunctional and stable electrodes (so-called ‘power-paper’). When depositing the active layer, thermal annealing is a necessary step for optimizing the...
Over the past several years, the Sample Environmental group at Julich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS) at MLZ has made remarkable progress in updating and maintenance of the old cryogenic equipment and introducing the new ones. In addition to the tradition Orange-type wet cryostats, several cryogen-free closed cycle cryostats are in use. MLZ offers a wide range of dry and wet magnets with...
The coincidence Doppler broadening spectrometer (CDBS) at the MLZ provides state-of-the-art, depth dependent detection of defects and chemical composition at the annihilation site. A monoenergetic positron micro-beam (50 µm FWHM) is guided onto a sample where positrons may thermalise and annihilate with electrons. The Doppler broadening of the characteristic 511 keV annihilation peak is...
High-precision measurements of angular correlations in neutron beta decay address a number of questions which are at the forefront of particle physics. For a new generation of beta decay experiments, like the PERC (Proton Electron Decay Channel) experiment currently under construction in Munich, frequency-based beta spectroscopy methods using the cyclotron radiation emitted by electrons in a...
The cold neutron imaging beam line ANTARES at FRM II is a state of the art facility, which combines excellent beam properties with highly flexible experimental conditions. User experiments can be performed with complex sample environment like croystats, furnaces or tensile rigs.
In this poster, we give an overview of the beam line layout and possible options of the beam line. Moreover, we...
An emergent need for high-throughput monochromatic diffraction instrument at MLZ was identified. The insturment will be addressing a large section of reciprocal space in gapless fashion and adopting sufficient dynamic range with µs time-resolution, suited for both rapid data collection and studies of small sample volumes in the range of mm3, allowing for a variety of different sample...
The cold triple-axis spectrometer (TAS) FLEXX at HZB is a well-designed and upgraded instrument [1-4]. There was a strong wish that this excellent instrument should be preserved for the community. One attractive gap in the present instrumentation suite of MLZ, is the Larmor-diffraction technique [5-6] (LD) and, as a natural extension, cold neutron resonant spin echo (NRSE). TAS comes at no...
Lately, organic solar cells (OSCs) have gained increasing attention due to their rapidly increasing efficiencies as well as the relatively easy scalability in their manufacture. To make the manufacturing process of the bulk-heterojunction (BHJ) more environmentally friendly, increased efforts have recently been made to use halogen-free solvents, which, however, can lead to reduced...
In addition to state-of-the-art neutron scattering instrumentation, sample environment is another important pillar to attract the user community.
On this occasion, new devices and developments will be presented such as closed cycle refrigerators with temperature extension up to 1.5K, development of high-pressure equipment for SANS, progress in automatic sample exchange systems and the new...
A low-energy monoenergetic positron beam can be used to implant positrons near the surface of materials. In polymers and in particular in porous materials positrons can form positronium (Ps). Even at greater implantation depths Ps can diffuse back to the surface and be emitted if the material has an open porous structure, i.e., the pores create a path to the outside. Therefore, we can...
BornAgain [1,2] is an open-source software package to model and fit SAS, GISAS, off-specular scattering, and reflectometry. It was designed to fully reproduce the functionality of the standard software IsGisaxs [3], allow for hierarchical sample models of arbitrary complexity, and support neutron polarization and magnetic scattering. It can be used either through a graphical user interface or...
Inelastic neutron scattering is very useful experimental method used across all scientific fields. It is mainly used for uncovering the dynamics and excitations in single crystals. Although very powerful method inelastic neutron scattering suffers from low flux scattered from sample. This can be improved by increasing volume of sample.
Traditionally, experimental physicist are coaligning...
The “Stress and TExture CAlculator” (Steca) is a data reduction software tool. It is used to support the analysis of the data from x-ray material diffractometers and neutron strain scanner STRESS-SPEC.
In particular, peak positions, widths and intensities are extracted from the 2D detector data of the instruments. The extracted data can be saved within a Steca project file or exported into...
Tuning hydrostatic pressure up to moderate (P < 1000 bar) pressure values can be crucial for understanding structure-property interplay in different disciplines, including: protein treatment in food processing, biophysics of deep-sea, processing of baroplastic polymers, polymer coating technologies for artificial joints. To the best of our knowledge, the role of pressure and thermodynamic...
The Automatic Laue Sample Aligner (ALSA) uses a robotic arm (Mecademic Meca500 [1]), computer vision [2], and air suction to manipulate small crystal samples.
While controlling the robot arm, operating with the absolute reference frame of the robot would be quite confusing for the end user. Therefore, taking inspiration from Entangle [3] implementation, we have written a control driver using...
The salt effect of KCl on D2O hydration and subsequent thermoresponsive behavior of diblock copolymer (DBC) thin films, which feature a short zwitterionic poly(4-((3-methacrylamidopropyl) dimethylammonio) butane-1-sulfonate)) (PSBP) block and a long nonionic thermo-responsive poly(N-isopropylmethacrylamide) (PNIPMAM) block, is studied by in situ spectral reflectance (SR) and time-of-flight...
Performance and safety/stability of Li-ion batteries can be improved by either optimizing the charge storing electrodes or the charge transfer mediating liquid electrolytes. Most of the research since the commercialization of Li-ion batteries by Sony in 1991 has been focused on the electrodes and less on the electrolytes. An important class of solvents used in electrolytes are linear and...
TOFTOF is a direct geometry disc-chopper time-of-flight spectrometer. TOFTOF represents a versatile instrument combining high energy resolution, high neutron flux (also at short wavelengths), and an excellent signal-to-background ratio. It is perfectly suited for inelastic and quasielastic neutron scattering and scientific topics include e.g.:
• Diffusion in liquid metals and...
As a cold time-of-flight spectrometer, TOFTOF’s impacts are felt across scientific areas including: biophysics, materials science; fundamental hard and soft condensed matter physics, chemistry and biology. The impact is not only as a stand alone instrument but also as part of the suite of neutron spectrometers (e.g. SPHERES and J-NSE PHOENIX) addressing scientific questions which require...
Polarized neutron diffraction is a powerful tool for studying condensed matter physics and to probe the spin and orbital properties of unpaired electrons. POLI is a polarized neutron single crystal diffractometer built on the hot neutron source at MLZ. Currently three standard setups are implemented on POLI: 1) zero-field spherical neutron polarimetry using CRYOPAD; 2) polarized neutron...
Poly(2-oxazoline)s are biocompatible polymers featuring high copolymerization versatility and low in-vivo immunogenicity [1]. Thus, the system has potential in biomedical applications. While linear poly(2-oxazoline) homo- and block copolymers have been amply studied, studies on molecular brushes from poly(2-oxazoline)s are still scarce [2, 3]. In the present study, we investigate molecular...
Lithium has a high specific capacity of 3860 mAh g−1 and a low electrochemical potential (-3.04 V), promising a high energy density lithium metal battery (LMB). However, the growth of lithium dendrites during charging and discharging would penetrate the separators in LMBs, which leads to short circuit. To inhibit the growth of lithium dendrites, we focus on optimizing the SEI layer through...
All-solid-state lithium-ion batteries (ASSLIBs) have received extensive attention as one of the most promising power sources for flexible and wearable electronics, mainly because of their high flexibility, high energy density and reliable safety. However, the practical application of ASSLBs has been hindered by the poor interfacial stability and inferior ionic conductivity. Solid polymer...
The integration of sample environment (SE) equipment in a beam line experiment is a complex challenge both in the physical world and in the digital world. Different experiment control software offer different interfaces for the connection of SE equipment. Therefore, it is time-consuming to integrate new SE or to share SE equipment between facilities. To tackle this problem, the International...
Solvent additives have received tremendous attention in organic solar cells as an effective way to optimize morphology and phase separation. However, most research primarily focuses on solvent additives with superior solvation for non-fullerene acceptors (NFA) over polymer donors, such as the 1-chloronaphthalen (1-CN), 1, 8-diiodooctane (1,8-DIO). Few researches are related to solvent...
Stimuli-responsive diblock copolymers (DBCPs) have gathered considerable interest for uptake, delivery and release processes due to their property tunability upon exposure to external stimuli, such as temperature and light. In this study, DBCPs comprising PNIPAM as the thermoresponsive block and azopyrazole (AzPy) functionalized PNDMAM as the photo-responsive block are expected to feature dual...
Transparent conducting oxide (TCO) thin films have been studied intensively for optoelectronic devices, such as photodetectors, photovoltaics and light emitting diodes (LEDs). Among the several TCO thin films, zinc doped indium oxide (IZO) has received much attention as interface layer in optoelectronic devices due to its excellent electrical conductivity, optical transmittance, high...
Plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) or score-shell NPs are extensively used in various applications, in particular, Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS), which has been widely used in viral molecular detection. Virus Raman detection research is mainly focused on the detection of viral nucleic acid and various bases that make up the nucleic acid, but the detection of viral proteins is rare. In...
In the rapidly evolving landscape of experimental research, the integration of advanced technologies has conducted in a new era of precision and efficiency. Robotic systems, supported by artificial intelligence, have become important tools for conducting experiments with high levels of control and accuracy. Among these rapid developments, the closed-loop approach stands out as a paradigm...
Our work focuses on the development of an Automatic Laue Sample Aligner (ALSA) that allows to increase
the sample size for neutron experiments, by fully automating the co-alignment process [1].
However, the sample manipulation, which utilizes a precise robotic arm (Mecademic Meca500 [2]),
requires also advanced use of computer vision (CV). This poster presents our integration of general...
