English

Apparatus for simultaneous DLS-SANS investigations of dynamics and structure in soft matter

Soft Condensed Matter 2023-07-10 v1

Abstract

Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) and Small-Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) are two key tools with which to probe the dynamic and static structure factor, respectively, in soft matter. Usually DLS and SANS measurements are performed separately, in different laboratories, on different samples and at different times. However, this methodology has particular disadvantages for a large variety of soft materials which exhibit high sensitivity to small changes in fundamental parameters such as waiting times, concentration, pH, ionic strength, etc. Here we report on a new portable DLS-SANS apparatus that allows one to simultaneously measure both the microscopic dynamics (through DLS) and the static structure (through SANS) on the same sample. The apparatus has been constructed as a collaboration between two laboratories, each an expert in one of the scattering methods, and was commissioned on the \textit{LOQ} and \textit{ZOOM} SANS instruments at the ISIS Pulsed Neutron \& Muon Source, U.K.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2307.03511,
  title  = {Apparatus for simultaneous DLS-SANS investigations of dynamics and structure in soft matter},
  author = {Valentina Nigro and Roberta Angelini and Stephen King and Silvia Franco and Elena Buratti and Francesca Bomboi and Najet Mahmoudi and Fabrizio Corvasce and Roberto Scaccia and Andy Church and Thomas Charleston and Barbara Ruzicka},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2307.03511},
  year   = {2023}
}