SAXS beamline

1. General

 

Usually a (smaller) sample holder is mounted onto the sample alignment stage which allows the user to place the sample into the beam with a precision of 5µm (resolution: 1µm). The Figure shows the maximum possible dimensions, and alignment range, for a sample holder to be mounted via a base-plate onto our standard alignment stage (left), and dimensions of the base-plate (right). The maximum weight on the sample stage is limited to 10 kg.

In case the space requirements for a sophisticated sample station provided by the users are larger than those given in the Figure, the user can discuss with the beamline scientists for alternatives:  if necessary, user equipment can also be mounted directly onto an optical table, which allows much larger spatial dimensions.

 

                                                                                                                                                 

   

2. Standard sample holder

As standard equipment for liquid samples glass or quartz capillaries (diameter: 1, 1.5 or 2 mm) are used thermostated within a KPR (Peltier heating/cooling) sample holder (Anton Paar, Graz, Austria). For use in this sample holder closed  capillaries can be used. But also flow through capillaries and Gel holders are standard equipment. Temperature scans can be performed with the KPR (0-70 °C). Typically the precision and the stability of this system is 0.1 °C. Additionally thermostats for temperature control or cooling proposes can be used at the beamline (-40 - 200 °C). Nitrogen and Argon gas is available at the beamline, for other gases please contact the beamline local contacts (generally, other gases should be provided by the users).
At present also a multiple-sample holder is available for measuring in automatic mode up to 30 solid samples at ambient temperature.



3. Flow-through capillary setup

The flow through cell works in a simple manner: Special quartz capillaries (Glas Technik & Konstruktion, Schönwalde/Berlin) of 1.5 mm diameter and wide openings of about 3 mm at each end, can be inserted into the standard Anton Paar sample holder, which allows various temperature treatments (T-range 25-300 or –30-70 °C, respectively). Thin tubes are connected directly to the capillary ends and a constanst flow is achieved by a peristaltic pump.



4. Stopped Flow Apparatus

A commercial stopped flow apparatus (manufactured by Bio-Logic, Paris, France), especially designed for Synchrotron Radiation SAXS investigations of conformation changes of proteins, nucleic acids and macromolecules, is available. The instrument consists of a 4-syringe cell with 3 mixer modules manufactured by Bio-Logic. Each syringe is driven independently from the others by an individual stepping-motor, which allows a high versatility of the mixing sequence (flow-rate, flow duration, sequential mixing). For example, injection sequences using one or up to 4 syringes, unequal filling of syringes, variable mixing ratio, reaction intermediate ageing in three- or four-syringe mode etc.. The solution flow can be entirely software-controlled via stepping motors, and can stop in a fraction of a millisecond.
The software allows the set-up of the shot volumes of each of the 4 syringes in a certain time interval. Up to 20 mixing protocols can be programmed. Additionally macros for the repeated execution of individual frames can be defined. Furthermore, the input and output trigger accessible for user operation can be programmed. In the usual operation modus the start of rapid mixing sequence is triggered from our X-ray data-acquisition system (input trigger).
 
After the liquids have been rapidly mixed, they are filled within few ms into a 1 mm quartz capillary - situated in the X-ray beam- , which is thermostated with a water bath. Depending on the diffraction power of the sample time resolutions of up to 10 ms can be obtained.


The main parameter of the system are:

 
·         Thermostated quartz capillary (1 mm)
·         Temperature stability 0.1 °C
·         Total sample used per mixing cycle (shot volume): 100 µl
·         Maximum 2qangle of 45°
·         Total Volume 8 ml
·         Dead volume 550 µl
·         Flow rate: 0.045 – 6 ml/s
·         Duration of flow 1 ms to 9999 ms/Phase
·         Dead time: 1 ms
·         Reservoir volume: 10 ml each
 
Further information can be found at the webpage: http://www.bio-logic.fr/


5. Online Exhaust System

At the experimental station is available a custom-built fume cover and chemical exhaust system for toxic gases. Thus it is possible to e.g. study in-situ chemical reactions, during which toxic gases might develop.



6. Grazing Incidence Small Angle X-ray Scattering

Grazing incidence studies on solid samples, thin film samples or Langmuir-Blodget-films can be performed using a specially designed sample holder, which can be rotated around 2 axes transversal to the beam. Furthermore the sample can be aligned by translating it in both directions transversal to the beam. The precisions are 0.001 deg for the rotations and 5 mm for the translations. Usually the system is set to reflect the beam in the vertical direction. According to the required protocol and the actual assembly of the rotation stages w, q, 2qand jscans can be performed.
 
 
 



7. Temperature Gradient Cell











 


A temperature gradient cell for X-ray scattering investigations on the thermal behaviour of soft matter manybody-systems, such as in gels, dispersions and solutions, has been developed. Depending on the adjustment of the temperature gradient in the sample, on the focus size of the X-ray beam and on the translational scanning precision an averaged thermal resolution of a few thousands of a degree can be achieved.
 



8. IR-Laser T-Jump System for Time-Resolved X-ray Scattering on Aqueous Solutions and Dispersions

The Erbium-Glass Laser available at the SAXS-beamline (Dr. Rapp Optoelektronik, Hamburg, Germany) delivers a maximum of 4 J per 2ms pulse with a wavelength of 1.54 µm
onto the sample. The laser-beam is guided by one prism onto the sample, which is filled in a glass capillary (1 or 2 mm in diameter) and Peltier or electronically thermostated in a metal sample holder (A. Paar, Graz, Austria). With a laser spotsize of maximal 7 mm in diameter a sample-volume of maximal 5.5 µl or 22 µl, respectively, is exposed to the laser-radiation. In a water-solutions/dispersions with an absorption coefficient of A = 6.5 cm-1 T-jumps up to 20°C are possible.

 
 

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9. High Pressure Cell System

SWAXS measurements of samples under pressure can be performed from 1 to 2500 bar, from 0 to 80 °C in the scattering angle region up to 30 degrees, both in the static or time-resolved mode, e.g. p-jump or p-scan, with a time-resolution down to the ms range. Precise pressure scans of any speed within a broad range (e.g. ca. 1.0 bar/s - 50 bar/s in the case of water as pressurising medium, and a typical sample volume) can be performed. Alternatively, dynamic processes can be studied in pressure-jump relaxation experiments with jump amplitudes up to 2.5 kbar/10ms in both directions (pressurising and depressurising jumps). In most applications diamond windows of 0.75 mm thickness (each) are used. The transmission of one pair (entrance and exit window) is 0.1 at 8 keV, i.e. lower than 0.3, the value for the originally used 1.5 mm thick Be-windows. However the loss in intensity is more than compensated for by the considerably lower background scattering of diamond thus leading to higher q-resolution in the experiments. The sample thickness can be 0.6-4.0 mm, with a volume of approximately 0.5-3 mm3 completely irradiated by pin-hole collimated (< 1.0 mm diameter) X-rays. The pressure cell system is flexible and can be built according to the needs of the particular experiment. Normally, a liquid (water, ethanol or octanol) is used as pressurising medium. But in principle, also gaseous media can be employed as well. N2 has been successfully tested, and measurements in supercritical CO2 became frequent. Beside bulk measurements on samples in transmission set-up, also grazing incidence experiments using silicon wafer with highly aligned samples on its surface inserted in the high-pressure cell have been carried out successfully.



10. Oxford Cryostream Cooler

The Cryostream  cooler  creates  a  cold  environment  only  a  few millimeters  from  the  nozzle position. The temperature and the flow of the nitrogen gas stream is controlled and regulated by a Programmable Temperatur Controller based on an 'in stream' heater and a thermo-sensor before it passes out over the sample.  The  system  has  been  especially  developed  for X-ray  crystallography  to  perform  diffraction experiments  on  e.g.  shock  frozen  bio-crystals.  However,  the  programmable  temperature controller allows  further  implication for SAXS-experiments, e.g.,  rapid  temperature drops  in solvents. The design of the Cryostream Cooler facilitates:

•  Nitrogen stream temperatures from -190 to 100 °C
•  Stability of 0.1 °C,
•  Refill without any disturbance of the temperature at the sample
•  Temperature  ramps  can  easily  be  carried  out  remotely  controlled with  scan  rates  up  6 °C/min
•  Individual temperature protocols can be cycled
•  T-jumps  in  both  directions  can  be  performed  by  rapid  transfer  of  the  sample  in  a  pre-cooled or -heated capillary using an fast syringe driver reaching a minimum temperature of  -80  °C. Here,  typical  scan  rates are about 15  °C/sec with a  total process  time  in  the order of 10 sec.

Further information can be found at the webpage: http://www.oxfordcryosystems.co.uk/



11. In-line Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC)

 

The  in-line micro-calorimeter  (built  by  the  group  of Michel Ollivon, CNRS,  Paris,  France) has a small window to allow the synchrotron radiation to pass the sample capillary. This allows  to  measure  - as  a  function  of the Temperature (T) - time-resolved high sensitivity DSC simultaneously to synchrotron radiation SAXS and WAXS. These combined microcalorimetry  and  SAXS/WAXS T-scans  can  be  performed  at  any  heating  rate  comprised between 0.1 and 10 °C/min with a 0.01 °C  temperature resolution in the range -30/+130 °C. However, maximum cooling  rates are T dependent and 10°C/min  rates  cannot be  sustained below  30°C  since  cooling  efficiency  is  a  temperature  dependent  process. Microcalorimetry scans  can  be  recorded  independently,  and  also  simultaniously,  of  X-ray  patterns.  Isothermal microcalorimetry  is also  possible when  a  time  dependent  thermal  event  such  as meta-stable  state  relaxation  or self-evolving reaction, is expected. The sample capillaries (to be brought by the users !) must have an outer diameter of  exactly 1.50 +/- 0.05 mm, and  a standard length of ca 80 mm. The wall thickness should be 10 micrometers.


Figure: Calorimeter head with vertical exit window (top); Working scheme (bottom): thermal fluxes exchanged between a sample (Sam.) and Reference (Ref.), both in capillaries (Cap.), and their respective environments are measured. Pm: measurement Peltier module; Ts: sample temperature; the measuring cell (C) temperature (Tc) is controlled through the heating resistor (H) and control Peltier module (Pc).  













12. Tension Cell

Together with the external user group Schulze-Bauer/Holzapfel the research team constructed a general-purpose tension cell. This particular cell was designed for in-situ tensile testing with the  particular  feature  that  the  sample  could  be  completely  immersed  in  a  solvent  (e.g. physiological  solution), which  is of particular  interest  for  the blood vessel or collagen fiber testing. The sample container can be attached  to a  thermal bath  to control  the  temperature  in the range from 5 to 95 ºC. A screw with an appropriate opening for the passage of the X-ray beam can adjust  the optical  thickness of  the sample container continuously and optimize  the set-up for different sample geometries.  The fully remote controlled system allows to control not only the fiber extension from 0 to 50 mm, but also it records simultaneously the force signal in the range from 0 to 25 N and as an option  the  optically  determined  Video  extensometer  signal  to  measure  the  transversal contraction of the sample.



Last Updated on Thursday, 24 March 2022 17:46