CRIF: Facilities: Research Facilities at ChemMatCARS: A Synchrotron Resource for Chemistry and Materials Science at the Advanced Photon Source

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

The Division of Chemistry and the Division of Materials Research at the National Science Foundation, and the Office of Basic Energy Sciences at the Department of Energy provide continuing support to ChemMatCARS at the Argonne Advanced Photon Source under the Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities Program (CRIF). The award provides maintenance, operation and selected upgrades of this unique resource as a national user facility for the chemical and materials science communities. The major techniques supported by the facility include chemical crystallography, surface science, small-angle X-ray scattering and wide-angle X-ray scattering. The instrumentation can be adapted to accept a wide variety of user chambers for specialized sample environments. This user facility provides a unique high brilliance X-ray resource for the study of surface, interfacial and bulk properties of liquids and solids on length scales ranging from the atomic to the mesoscopic. The facility deals with a wide variety of scientific problems ranging from crystal structure determination to formation of porous membranes to lithium batteries. The research activities enabled by the ChemMatCARS user facility set the pace in adapting synchrotron techniques to best serve the chemistry community; contribute to the development of improved materials, notably plastics, membranes and nano-composites. The facility serves as a training ground for researchers at all levels.