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Preparing for an In-Situ Experiment

Preparing for an In-Situ Experiment

I15-1 offers a number of in-situ style experiments including, but not limited to:

  • Temperature (100K - 1050K)

  • Gas/Liquid Flow

  • Electrochemistry (DRIX cell)

  • Hydrothermal

  • User Sample Environments

    • Ball mill

    • Bespoke electrochemical cells

    • Many more….

For all of these types of experiments, we recommend arriving a day early to allow for lab inductions, general discussions on experimental plans and setup of the beamline (where possible). Not all in-situ experiments can be setup the day before, due to the beamline schedule, so please allow time on the day of the experiment for the relevant setup. Your local contact will be able to inform you of approximate start times where applicable (allowing for you to go and get a coffee!)

Not all members of the team need to be here for this, but as many as possible to allow for the smoothest start. Please discuss these arrangements with your local contact as soon as possible.

For any experiments that include gases, please contact the beamline/local contact at the earliest convenience. Gas experiments require at least 8 weeks of planning to allow for the booking of the relevant gas equipment as well as the ordering of the gases.

Due to current LEV limitations, we can only offer certain gases for experiments which include:

  • Inert (N2/Ar/He/Synthetic Air from gas manifold or high purity cylinder)

  • 4% H2 in inert

  • Low concentration CO2

  • Low concentration O2

We hope to be able to offer more gases in the future with various upgrades to the beamline’s ventilation systems. Options of (user supplied) gas traps are also available.

DRIX experiments require us to move from a standard beam configuration (700 μm x 150 μm (H x V)) to a more focused beam configuration (700 μm x <100 μm (H x V)) to allow us to examine the region of interest on your cell. I15-1, from an optics point of view, is not setup to be a micro-focus beam and therefore it takes us an amount of time to make sure we are focused as small as we can go. In most cases, the beam will be setup the day before either fresh or following a fellow DRIX experiment. In a rare case, it will not have been possible to do so which will require setup on the day. Your local contact will make you aware of this and plan accordingly.

We actively encourage users to bring their own sample environments to the beamline to allow for new and exciting experiments! To date, we have had ball mills, bespoke liquid flow electrochemistry cells, Linkam furnaces, sintering cells and many more… Whilst you will have spoken to a member of beamline staff during the proposal period to make sure that it is technically feasible, now we need to check through the logistics of everything! Once a local contact is assigned, please make contact as soon as possible to discuss the environment itself (dimensions, scattering angles, materials, auxiliary equipment) providing photos and drawings, how to mount it to the beamline and a brief discussion of the experimental procedure. The more we know prior to the experiment, the more successful its going to be!