Use of scattering techniques in industry

by Thomas Sottmann

Monday 26 Jan 2026, 14:30 → 15:30 Europe/Berlin

PH HS 3 (Physics Department)

In fundamental research scattering techniques belong to the standard repertoire to study the structure, composition and dynamics of manifold samples ranging over of a wide length and time scale. Especially neutrons, which are uncharged and excel through a much lower energy than Xrays (a millionth), are used as probes with which researchers study a very wide variety of complex fluids and materials. In industry, however, the use of scattering techniques in general and neutron scattering in particular is limited. On the one hand, scattering curves show the samples structure only in the reciprocal space and sometimes a complex data analysis is needed to obtain the structural information. On the other hand, especially neutrons can be used to look inside a big car engine, investigate drug delivery, see how plants uptake water, get insights into the development of superconductors, etc.. In this talk the high potential of scattering techniques is presented by means of (1) the nanofoam synthesis from colloidal crystals of PS-nanoparticles and (2) the elucidation of the role of confinement in catalysis, which is the main goal of the Collaborative Research Center 1333. (1) deals with the elucidation of the NF-CID procedure [1], which enables the preparation of low-cost polymeric nanofoams. Dynamic light scattering (DLS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and time-resolved SANS are used to characterize the procedure stepby- step [2]. Starting from the synthesis of the polymer nanoparticles, their packing in form of colloidal crystals, the subsequent transformation into a continuous polymer matrix containing supercritical CO2-droplets up to the final expansion leading to the formation of the nanofoam could be impressively tracked by the combination of scattering and imaging techniques [3]. In (2), SAXS and contrast variation SANS was used to study the adsorption of ionic liquids in micro-/mesoporous silica [4] and the influence of the confinement on the inner-pore segregation of a dioxane/formic acid mixture used in Ru-catalyzed formic acid dehydrogenation to yield CO2 and H2 [5].

[1] R. Strey, A. Müller, Erzeugung nanodisperser Einschlüsse in einer hochviskosen Matrix, DE102010053064A1 (2010).

[2] L. Grassberger, Towards cost-efficient preparation of nanoporous materials: formation kinetics, process optimization and material characterization, PhD-Thesis University of Cologne, Dr. Hut Verlag, ISBN: 9783843926232 (2016).

[3] T. Sottmann, Use of Scattering Techniques in Industry, T. Sottmann in Neutrons, X-rays, and Light (Second Edition), edited by P. Lindner, J. Oberdisse, Elsevier (2025).

[4] N. Schnabel, F. Ziegler, M. R. Buchmeiser, T. Sottmann, Adsorption of Ionic Liquids in Micro- and Mesoporous Silica studied by Small-Angle X-ray Scattering, ChemRxiv (2025) https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv-2025-f8m68 (2025).

[5] H.-H. Nguyen, M. Högler, N. Schnabel, N. Hansen, T. Sottmann, D. Estes, The Effects of Surfaces and Confinement on Formic Acid Dehydrogenation Catalyzed by an Immobilized Ru-H Complex: Insights from Molecular Simulation and Neutron Scattering ACS Catal. 14, 11252−11261 (2024).