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Small-Angle X-Ray Scattering to Analyze the Morphological Properties of Nanoparticulated Systems

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Handbook of Materials Characterization

Abstract

Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) is a powerful technique that uses the scattering of a beam of X-rays to investigate the structure, morphology, and arrangement of submicron dimensions and particularly useful for studying systems at the nanometric scale. Herein, in this chapter book, we will examine the most representative features of several scattering intensity curves acquired from several nanoparticulated systems. We begin with the explanation of the most fundamental concepts behind the SAXS framework, to then introduce the principal features of a scattering pattern. Each section of this chapter is complemented with practical examples, many of which are simulations, while others come from real experimental data taken from real samples synthesized for this purpose in our labs. As an important part of this work, we present two models often used to fit SAXS curves acquired from granular nanoparticle samples, which are the fractal aggregate and the Beaucage models. In this last part of these sections, our goal is to explain how to obtain valuable structural information from systems consisting of either nanoparticles surrounded by liquids or solids. Finally, we present a complete description of the principal components needed to a SAXS instrument.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Notice that high or low resolution refers to those structural properties at atomic or superatomic level, respectively.

  2. 2.

    Experimentally it is not possible to obtain the amplitude and phase of the scattering amplitude \( A\left(\overrightarrow{q}\right) \). Experimental SAXS data allows determining the modulus of \( A\left(\overrightarrow{q}\right) \), but the phase remains unknown.

  3. 3.

    Every detector has a specific saturation value expressed in counts [2].

  4. 4.

    In crystallography it is known as the lattice factor.

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Acknowledgment

O. M. L., D. M., and M. K. acknowledge FAPESP, Brazil (2014/26672-8, 2011/01235-6 and 2011/02356-11), P. T., P. R., and L. M. S. Thanks to CONICET (Argentina). LNLS/CNPEM is acknowledged for SAXS measurements. LNNano/CNPEM is acknowledged for the use of TEM microscopes. All the authors want to especially thank the developers of the SASfit software, which was used to simulate the SAXS curves presented here.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gleb Wataghin Institute of Physics, University of Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brazil

    Oscar Moscoso Londoño, Diego Muraca & Marcelo Knobel

  2. Faculty of Engineering, Autonomous University of Manizales, Manizales, Colombia

    Oscar Moscoso Londoño

  3. Laboratory of Amorphous Solids, Faculty of Engineering, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Pablo Tancredi & Patricia Rivas

  4. Santa Cruz Regional Faculty, National Technological University – CIT-Santa Cruz (CONICET), Rio Gallegos, Argentina

    Leandro M. Socolovsky

Authors
  1. Oscar Moscoso Londoño
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  2. Pablo Tancredi
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  3. Patricia Rivas
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  4. Diego Muraca
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  5. Leandro M. Socolovsky
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  6. Marcelo Knobel
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Oscar Moscoso Londoño .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Federal University of Maranhão, São Luis, Maranhão, Brazil

    Surender Kumar Sharma

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Londoño, O.M., Tancredi, P., Rivas, P., Muraca, D., Socolovsky, L.M., Knobel, M. (2018). Small-Angle X-Ray Scattering to Analyze the Morphological Properties of Nanoparticulated Systems. In: Sharma, S. (eds) Handbook of Materials Characterization. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92955-2_2

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