Issue 1, 2020

Small-angle X-ray scattering of nanoporous materials

Abstract

Small-angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) is a non-invasive reciprocal space characterization technique that provides statistically representative microstructural information about a material. This focus article examines SAXS as a tool to probe the microstructure of nanoporous materials. We seek to educate the reader on scattering instrumentation and requisite scattering theory pertinent to nanoporous materials, and describe analytical models used to fit SAXS data, to elucidate the microstructure of these nanoporous materials including their morphological features such as the pore size distribution, pore curvature, and specific surface area. Finally, we fit and compare the aforementioned models to real scattering data of nanoporous gold synthesized in our laboratory. The models yield realistic material parameters for the nanoporous gold morphology, in agreement with electron micrograph images. In addition, we have investigated the scattering patterns and characteristic electron micrographs of nanoporous copper and nanoporous antimony also synthesized in our laboratory. The models discussed in this paper do not yield realistic material parameters for specific nanoporous copper and nanoporous antimony morphologies, however. This could be the subject of follow-up work.

Graphical abstract: Small-angle X-ray scattering of nanoporous materials

Article information

Article type
Focus
Submitted
24 5 2019
Accepted
16 8 2019
First published
16 8 2019

Nanoscale Horiz., 2020,5, 12-24

Author version available

Small-angle X-ray scattering of nanoporous materials

S. S. Welborn and E. Detsi, Nanoscale Horiz., 2020, 5, 12 DOI: 10.1039/C9NH00347A

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