EMU is the high-resolution neutron spectrometer installed at the OPAL reactor, ANSTO, which delivers 1 µeV FWHM energy transfer resolution for an accessible ±31 µeV energy transfer range. The spectral resolution is achieved by neutron backscattering from Si (111) crystals on the primary and secondary flight paths, allowing up to 1.95 Å-1 momentum transfer range. The spectrometer is well for...
The toroidal analyser at the Australian Synchrotron is an angle-resolving photoelectron spectrometer capable of mapping the full hemisphere of emitted photoelectrons from a sample. This measurement capability is unusual amongst conventional photoelectron spectrometers, and permits a number unique techniques for the electronic and structural characterization of surfaces. This presentation will...
The Echidna high-resolution powder diffractometer remains a reliable and productive ACNS instrument contributing annually to about 50 published studies done on a wide range of topics, from magnetic, energy and planetary materials to cultural heritage and additive manufacturing. We will discuss how Echidna has been affected by COVID-19 measures, latest and planned developments, user programme...
The purpose of the scientific computing support at ANSTO is to aid in the interpretation of both structural and dynamical data from the neutron scattering instruments using atomistic modelling calculations. Most of these calculations are done with ab initio scientific software packages based on Density Functional Theory, including VASP, WIEN2K, ABINIT, SIESTA, PHONON, and QUANTUM ESPRESSO,...
Despite the fact that membrane fusion is a key step in many biological processes, the underlying mechanism still remains elusive. The bicontinuous cubic phases are a perfect medium for the delivery of therapeutic proteins owing to their enhanced solubility, sustained release and reduced toxicity. It has been suggested that the fusion event of viruses is tightly regulated by specialized fusion...
The cold-neutron time-of-flight spectrometer Pelican has been in operation since 2014. Pelican is well suited to the measurement of quasielastic and inelastic scattering in the low energy region, as a result Pelican is sensitive to many phenomena including self-diffusion of molecular species, low energy phonons, crystal field excitation's and spin waves. While use of the neutron energy gain...
Kowari is a residual stress diffractometer which can be used for ‘strain scanning’ of large engineering components as large as one ton. The integrity of engineering components often depends on strains and stresses inside the material. For example, rails can fail if stresses exceed the ‘ultimate tensile stress’.
The soft X-ray beamline at the Australian Synchrotron has been operating with users since 2008. The beamline offers three different systems for users; A full Ultra High Vacuum surface science system with Nexafs and Photo-emission capabilities, an Angle Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy (ARPES) system operated with La Trobe University and a High Throughput system exclusively for Nexafs but...
The ATOS-GOM structured light 3D scanner is a replacement for the laser scanner previously used on the Kowari instrument. In addition to outlining its operation, this talk will address some exciting possibilities this new piece of equipment brings to the Kowari instrument.
Eight new beamlines are currently under design or construction at the Australian Synchrotron as part of the BRIGHT project. Included among them are the Advanced Diffraction and Scattering beamlines, ADS-1 and ADS-2, which will offer high-energy X-rays (45-150 keV) for a variety of diffraction, imaging and tomography experiments. ADS will benefit users from the materials, minerals and...
X-ray diffraction data are normally collected with a fixed count time (FCT) per step. With this data, the intensities of the diffraction peaks decrease with increasing angle,primarily due to the effects of atomic scattering factors, Lorentz-polarisation, atomic displacement parameters, and absorption. In diffractometers with point or small linear detectors, these changes can be counteracted by...
With limited improvement in brain cancer patient survival in the last 30 years, the search for a treatment strategy that is targeted and effective continues. This study is harnessing the unique properties of synchrotron radiation for anti-cancer radiotherapy. The Imaging and Medical Beamline (IMBL) at the ANSTO Australian Synchrotron (AS) offers the possibility to perform pre-clinical...
Maintenance of multicellular tissue architecture is conserved process which is regulated by a highly
conserved set of proteins. The interacting partners of these regulators are also conserved across the
animal kingdom. Scribble and Dlg are two such key polarity regulators that involve in the establishment
and maintenance of multicellular apical-basal cell polarity in epithelial cells. These...
PLATYPUS is the initial neutron reflectometer at the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering with a capability to study surfaces and interface systems ranging from biomolecules, soft matter through to magnetic thin films [1-3]. There have been a number of significant improvements to both the instrument and data reduction and treatment software [4] over the last two years. On the hardware...
Chiral coordination polymers have recently been explored as potential stationary phases for enantioselective separations.1 However, the chiral resolution ability of non-porous coordination polymers is not often tested.
In this work, two chiral 1D cobalt coordination polymers have been synthesised with an amino acid functionalized diimde ligand. The coordination polymers, which have little...
Complex coacervates are oppositely charged self-assembled biopolymers such as proteins and polysaccharides. They can be used both as a delivery system of bioactive materials, and for improving the structural and textural functionalities of the final food products. The functionalities of the coacervates are dependent on their microstructures, which are determined on a case-by-case basis...
Taipan is a high-flux thermal-neutron triple-axis spectrometer with a traditional single-detector design. Taipan has been working as the work horse for inelastic neutron scattering experiments at ACNS for the last ten years, generating numerous beautiful scientific highlights. Following the trend of the neuron instrumentation, it is interesting to consider the future upgrade of Taipan to...
Located on the OPAL reactor face, Taipan is the highest flux, thermal neutron scattering instrument at ANSTO. Originally, Taipan was built as a traditional triple-axis spectrometer for inelastic neutron scattering studies with energy transfers up to 70meV. Since its inclusion in the ANSTO user program in 2010, Taipan has undergone a number of upgrades and improvements, including new...
From literature reports, Fe-Pd alloys in the vicinity of Fe-30at%Pd exhibit two martensitic transformations on being cooled from just above room temperature to about 100 K. A preliminary study of a large single crystal of this composition at the KOALA beamline, not only showed evidence for these transformations but also revealed most interesting satellite reflections around certain Bragg...
The spin dynamics of Mn$_4$Nb$_2$O$_9$ were studied by using inelastic neutron scattering. A spin-dynamic model is proposed to explain the observed spin-wave excitation spectrum. The model indicates that the exchange interactions along the chain direction are weakly ferromagnetic while the exchange interactions between the neighbour chains are strongly antiferromagnetic. Such a...
Electrochemical water splitting is one of the widely studied routes to developing sustainable energy systems. Energy in the form of hydrogen has been gaining attention since it can be easily converted, stored, and transported. In order to improve efficiency, an electrocatalyst will be needed to aid the slow kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) process. Metal-organic frameworks...
Semiconducting polymers offer the potential of low-cost flexible electronics. To improve the processability and mechanical flexibility of semiconducting polymers, blending with commodity polymers is an attractive strategy. Understanding how blending affects the resulting microstructure in aligned samples produced by directional coating techniques such as blade coating is important to optimize...
Chromium oxide (Cr2O3) can be used as a protective layer for photocatalysts to improve photocatalytic water splitting activity and is commonly photodeposited. However, it is not known how the conditions of the Cr2O3 formation affect the formation of the protective layer and potential diffusion into the substate onto which the Cr2O3 has been deposited. We have investigated the stability of...
The intermittent nature of renewable energy is a major challenge that can be overcome via cheap and effective energy storage [1]. Thermochemical energy storage is an upcoming technology that can improve efficiency in applications such as concentrated solar power[2]. Metal carbonates have great potential as thermochemical energy storage materials, through the reversible endo/exothermic...
Taipan, the highest flux thermal neutron scattering instrument at ACNS, was originally built as a traditional triple-axis spectrometer. In 2016 a beryllium filter analyser spectrometer was added for increased versatility. The Be-filter acts like a low-energy band-pass filter ideal for investigating lattice dynamics and molecular vibrations over a wide energy range. It is particularly well...
The rapid rise of antibiotic resistance has caused an urgent demand for new antibiotics. One way to address this is by manipulating essential bacterial interactions not targeted by current antibiotics. The interaction between the Signal Recognition Particle (SRP) and its receptor (FtsY) is critical for cell viability but is mediated by RNA:protein interactions in bacteria versus...
In regenerative medicine, (intra)cellular delivery of genetic material can be used to introduce functional copies of a gene that is defective and responsible for disease development. To avoid nuclease- and lysosome-mediated degradation of the gene, drug delivery systems / carriers need to be developed. Recently, non-viral delivery systems are being developed, such as microinjection, or various...
First-order magnetic transitions are of both fundamental and technological interest. Of particular interest are giant magnetocaloric effects, which are attributed to first-order magnetic transitions and have attracted great attention for solid-state refrigeration applications. Here, we present a systematic study, with inelastic and quasielastic neutron scatterings, on the lattice and spin...
Electrochemical water splitting with a proton-exchange membrane electrolyte provides many advantages for the energy-efficient production of high-purity dihydrogen in a sustainable manner, but the current technology relies on high loadings of expensive and scarce iridium at the anodes, which are also often insufficiently stable in operation. A common strategy to achieve stability is to...
Ionic liquids (ILs) have emerged as a remarkable class of green solvents with unique characteristics, and feasible task-specific tailoring of their properties. The application of ILs has extended to facilitate amphiphile self-assembly. ILs not only support the self-assembly of amphiphiles, they can also be used as designer solvents(1).
Lipid amphiphiles can assemble into a wide range of...
Toll-like receptors (TLRs) detect pathogens and endogenous danger, initiating immune responses that lead to the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. At the same time, TLR-mediated inflammation is associated with a number of pathological states, including infectious, autoimmune, inflammatory, cardiovascular and cancer-related disorders. This dual role of the pathways has attracted...
SARS-CoV-2 infection leads to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is associated with severe and life-threatening pneumonia and respiratory failure. However, the molecular basis of these symptoms remains unclear. SARS-CoV-1 E protein interferes with control of cell polarity and cell-cell junction integrity in human epithelial cells by binding to the PALS1 PDZ domain, a key component of...
Protic Ionic Liquids (PILs) are a class of tailorable solvents made up of fused salts with melting points below 100 °C, which are formed through a Brønsted acid-base reaction involving proton exchange[1]. These solvents have applications as lubricants, electrolytes, and many other uses[2]. Although they are quite similar to molten salts, their crystal structures have not been explored...
The cold waters of the Southern Ocean (SO) are acknowledged as a major hotspot for atmospheric CO2 uptake and is anticipated to be one of first regions to be affected by Ocean acidification (OA). Primary production in the SO is dominated by diatom-rich phytoplankton assemblages, whose individual physiologies and community composition are strongly shaped by the environment, yet knowledge on how...
Substitution of arsenic in pyrite called arsenian pyrite is often accompanied by concentration of valuable metals such as gold in some deposits. In such mineralogical occurrence, a concentration-driven substitution of As encapsulating ‘pure’ pyrite is typical. Although knowledge of As substitution environment in pyrite is important in determining surface characteristics, and interactions in...
Direct phytostabilisation of Fe ore tailings is typically unfeasible due to its harsh environment, which includes strongly alkaline pH conditions, deficient available nutrients and organic matter and poor physical structure, hindering microbial and plant colonisation. Eco-engineering Fe ore tailings into a soil-like substrate (or technosol) is an emerging technology to rehabilitate tailings...
Most lode gold deposits worldwide are associated with structures such as shear zones. Thanks to their capacity to couple resolution and depth of investigation, seismic methods can identify these indirect indicators of mineralization and help extend gold exploration targets to greater depths. Rocks from shear zones are usually seismically anisotropic. Seismic anisotropy is generally related to...
Serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) enables atomic scale imaging of protein structures via X-ray diffraction measurements from large numbers of small crystals intersecting intense X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) pulses. Sample injection typically involves continuous delivery of crystals to the pulsed XFEL beam via a liquid jet. Due to movement of the jet, which is often focused to...
Food provenance is a global concern due to rising instances of food fraud, costing the global food industry over 50 billion USD per annum and leading to consumers getting lower quality produce. Seafood is a high value food product, and the Australian seafood industry is worth 4 billion AUD by 2023. Most Australian seafood is exported, and complex supply chains can leave it susceptible to...
One of the greatest challenges threatening Australia’s railway infrastructure is the rapid rate of rail degradation. Wear and rolling contact fatigue occur due to increasing speeds and tonnages of rollingstock, requiring significant funding by the Australian government to maintain. Light rail is particularly susceptible to degradation due to low carbon steel used in tram switch blades.
Laser...
Coatings of the materials zirconium boride (ZrB2) and hydroxyapatite (HAp) underwent X-ray micro-Computed Tomography (X-ray μ-CT) scanning at the Australian Synchrotron. The Data Constrained Modelling (DCM) approach was used to reconstruct 3D models and assess porosity and void distributions. The results from the 3D analysis were compared to a 2D porosity and void distribution assessment,...
Non-small-cell lung carcinomas are highly radioresistant and so, of potential interest for treatment with Microbeam Radiation Therapy. In the thoracic cavity, the therapeutic dose is limited largely by the heart; one of the most important organs of risk.
We developed an ex vivo protocol to study the acute response of the cardiac impulse conduction system to microbeam radiotherapy with high...
A wide range of ion energies (KeV- MeV), ion species, and ion fluences achievable by ion beam implantation, which allows fabrication of highly customized patterned subsurface structures in materials. This advanced material processing technology allows tuning of specific magnetic, and electronic properties with the aim of achieving a wide range of functionalities in electronics. Magnetic ions...
Polyethylene is a highly transparent material in the terahertz (THz) region (1-200 cm$^{-1}$). This makes it ideal for lenses and windows, especially for cryostats. It is also often used as a binding medium in sample pellets to dilute trace amounts of optically thick samples.
One caveat for this extremely useful material, however, is an absorption at 73 cm$^{-1}$, often overlooked when...
Liquid metals (LMs) – metals that are liquid near room temperature – have fascinated scientists for centuries. In the last few decades, in particular, the extent of their peculiar properties has been highlighted. Properties such as low melting point, high flexibility and stretchability, excellent thermal and electrical conductivities, and biocompatibility have led LMs to a wide variety of...
The fundamentals of crystallisation and glass formation are not yet fully understood. Colloidal suspensions have been shown to be promising model systems for understanding these processes. As colloidal motion is Brownian, rather than ballistic, kinetics and dynamics can be studied in real-time. It is well documented that colloidal suspensions can “successfully crystallise” when the particles...
Astronauts travelling through space are at risk of exposure to radiation arising from Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs) and Solar particle events (SPE) which possess a significant radiobiological effect. GCR is mostly made up of protons with a small proportion of GCR being high atomic number energetic particles, which are difficult to shield while SPEs are events which occasionally eject large...
Appendicular osteosarcoma is a highly destructive malignant primary bone tumour occurring in both canine and human patients. Clinically, amputation is the most common outcome, however, Synchrotron generated radiotherapy may provide a preferable alternative.
Building from a body of knowledge acquired in small animal models, client-owned dogs with spontaneously developing tumours would be an...
The growing need for safe and reliable energy storage has brought the search for stable, high performance solid electrolytes to the forefront of battery materials research. Recently, it has been shown that lithium lanthanide halides (Li$_3$MX$_6$, M = La-Lu, X = Cl, Br, I) with high ionic conductivities can be synthesized through mechanochemical and water mediated routes, creating renewed...
Wombat is a high intensity neutron diffractometer located in the OPAL Neutron Guide Hall. It is primarily used as a high-speed powder diffractometer, but has also expanded into texture characterisation and single-crystal measurement, particularly diffuse scattering. The high performance comes from the combination of the best area detector ever constructed for neutron diffraction with the...
Negative thermal expansion (NTE) involves the unconventional behaviour of material contraction upon heating and has been observed in some metal organic frameworks (MOFs). Investigations into the mechanism governing NTE are highly important for practical applications for when it is undesirable for materials to expand upon heating. Previous investigations focused on aromatic and single component...
The use of heterotopic ligands in the synthesis of coordination polymers (CPs) using pyridyl groups and carboxylates have been extensive. But the use of chiral heterotopic ligands using pyridyl groups and phthalimide groups has not been explored. Chiral coordination polymers have been formed using leucine, phenylalanine and cysteine substituted pyridylphthalimide cores (L3pyph, M3pyph and...
Encephalopathies are a group of brain dysfunctions which leads to cognitive, sensory, and motor impairments. Recent developments in the field have led to the identification of several mutations within the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor as one of the possible culprits for this group of conditions. However, understanding of the underlying changes to the receptor due to these mutations has been...
Chirality is an intrinsic property of life on Earth. Biological systems have evolved alongside chiral molecules like proteins, DNA, and sugars, which all exist as pairs of nonsuperimposable mirror images. These mirror images, called enantiomers, are chemically indistinguishable, except when they interact with other chiral systems. Chiral drugs like ibuprofen differ in their effectiveness based...
The development of in situ XAS for water electrolysis applications, such as sustainable hydrogen production, is integral towards the accurate characterisation of state-of-the-art electrocatalytic materials. As this field continues to uncover a breadth of earth-abundant and high performance electrocatalysts, the understanding of their operando structures and electronic states is required to...
High GHz and THz frequencies are becoming important in the communication, security, and industrial fields. With the increasing use of THz technology, the skin, cornea, and tympanic membrane will be subjected to increased incidental and purposeful THz radiation. There is an urgent need to adequately characterise the way the cornea and tympanic membrane interact with THz radiation to understand...
Energy security during the transition to a low-carbon economy is one of society’s grand challenges. One possible method of developing carbon-neutral energy generation is through the combustion of hydrogen and oxygen gas. However, these gases must be able to be sustainably sourced using low-emission technologies.
One such method is using electrocatalysts – catalysts capable of splitting water...
Fibrin is the founding matrix after injury, delivering the key biophysical cues to promote wound healing in a timely and coordinated manner. The effect of the fibrin architecture on wound healing hasn’t been studied due to a lack of control over the enzyme-catalyzed polymerization of the fibrin network in vitro. Here, we establish a new defined snake venom-controlled fibrin system with...
Assembled protein particles are emerging as advanced protein biomaterials with significant impact in areas of vaccine development, biocatalysis, drug delivery and biosensing. To date, assembled protein particles primarily serve as scaffold to tether functional entities for various applications. Since they lack inherent functional properties, subsequent functionalisation of protein particles is...
In all battery systems, electrolyte plays a vital role in determining the stability of the electrodes, as well as the safety of the battery uses. The good solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) protective layer formed at the first cycling process of the battery, rather than continually accumulating on the electrode surface, and is not dissoluble in electrolytes, making its properties highly...
Thermoresponsive polymers have gained significant interest over recent years due to their potential use in a wide range of applications, including drug delivery, cell therapies, pharmaceuticals, tissue engineering, and mineral processing [1]. Of particular interest are thermoresponsive polysaccharides, which are generally biocompatible and biodegradable, unlike their synthetic counterparts....
In this study, we used a combination of synchrotron soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), lab-scale experimental techniques and first principles computation to critically examine and validate the surface and bulk electronic structure of prototypical vanadium (III) phosphate intercalation cathode materials, Na3V2(PO4)3, Li3V2(PO4)3 and K3V3(PO4)4• H2O. Using a combination of XPS, Raman...
The development of new solid electrolytes is becoming increasingly important, e.g., for rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles, where current liquid organic electrolytes cause major safety concerns. Some ABO3 perovskite metal oxides have shown excellent lithium and sodium ion conductivity owing to their chemical and structural flexibility. This has led to the development of several...
The diverse and tuneable intermolecular interactions present in ionic liquids (ILs) make them excellent media for surfactant self-assembly. Previous studies of polyoxyethylene alkyl ether nonionic surfactants, in ethylammonium nitrate and propylammonium nitrate have shown they can support the full range of amphiphilic self-assembly behaviour of nonionic surfactants for various applications....
Skyrmions are topologically protected spin vortices in the nanometre scale that behave like particles. In chiral crystals, competing magnetic interactions may induce 2D skyrmion lattices [1-2]. In the multiferroic insulator Cu$_2$OSeO$_3$, the skyrmion lattice responds to electric/magnetic fields suggesting applications in data storage [3]. These applications crucially depend on the stability...
Innate immunity represents a typical and widely distributed form of immunity. Innate immune responses are the first line of defense against pathogens, which can help destroy invaders invertebrate animals, invertebrates, and plants. The innate immune system recognizes microorganisms via pattern-recognition receptors (PRRs). The family of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) is a distinct group of PRRs....
Following the development of modern antibiotics and the net improvement of health care systems globally, tuberculosis (TB), a contagious and pathogenic bacterial infection caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, has been largely eliminated from developed countries. Despite this improvement TB remained a top 10 cause of death globally in 2020, which, when combined with the rise in multi-drug...
Molecular replacement (MR) is the most commonly used method in crystallography to solve the phase problem required to obtain the three dimensional structure of a protein. Traditionally MR uses a search model from a previously determined protein structure. One of the requirements for success by MR is that the amino acid sequences of the search model and the unknown structure should be have at...
Fluorescent nanodiamonds (FNDs) containing negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV–) centres have outstanding optical, photostability and spin properties which make them promising candidates as nanoscale sensors, and for quantum computing and bioimaging in biological media.
The location of NV atoms relative to the surface of the particles is essential for these applications – if the NV atoms...
For various soft and hard matter systems, reduction in sample particle size could be an effective method for producing homogeneous samples, eliminating trapped air bubbles, facilitating sample preparation (e.g., gel loading), or meeting the requirements of a specific sample environment. Due to the experimental constraints of small-angle scattering, such as the limited width (1 or 2 mm) of the...
ANSTO for more than ten years successfully operates the Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) instrument Quokka[1] and in 2016 commenced the user operation of the second SANS instrument, Bilby[2]. The Ultra-small angle scattering instrument Kookaburra[3] is completing the set of the SANS instruments at ANSTO.
Bilby exploits neutron Time-of-Flight (ToF) to extend the simultaneous measurable...
Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) are thermodynamically metastable. As such, crystallization occurs when a BMG is thermally annealed at a temperature above the glass transition temperature. While extensive studies have been performed on the crystallization kinetics of BMGs, most of them have focused on the amorphous-to-crystalline structural ordering, and little attention has been paid to chemical...
The development of novel high-performance electrodes is crucial for the next generation of lithium/sodium-ion batteries (LIBs/SIBs) that can charge rapidly while maintaining high lithium/sodium storage capacity. One of the major research directions to achieve improved energy/power densities of LIBs/SIBs has, thus far, focused on electrode materials that can store Li+/Na+ through conversion...
X-ray sensitive area detectors comprised of arrays of photon counting elements have been under development for decades. The difficult and expensive technological development of integrating readout electronic chips with a converter has been substantially supported by areas of science other than synchrotron radiation research. For instance, such innovation is vital in large scale high energy...
The double-crystal ultra-small-angle neutron scattering (USANS) diffractometer KOOKABURRA at ANSTO was made available for user experiments in 2014. KOOKABURRA allows the characterisation of microstructures covering length scales in the range of 0.1–20 µm. Use of the first- and second-order reflections coming off a doubly curved highly oriented mosaic pyrolytic graphite pre-monochromator at a...
Quokka was the first SANS instrument to be in operation at the Australian research reactor, OPAL [1]. It is a 40 m pinhole instrument operating with a neutron velocity selector, an adjustable collimation system providing source-sample distances of up to 20 m and a two dimensional 1 m squared position-sensitive state-of-the-art detector, capable of measuring neutrons scattered from the sample...
A new method is presented which extends the capabilities of attenuated total reflection (ATR) apparatus to a partial reflection/partial transmission mode, which also delivers the complex dielectric values of samples. The technique involves placing a mirror at a known distance from the sample/crystal interface to reflect the transmitted portion of the incident signal back to the detector. The...
The rapid emergence of SARS-Cov-2 out of Wuhan, China, in late 2019 has resulted in the current outbreak that has crippled social and economic development worldwide. With over four million deaths, significant efforts are being made to generate a viable treatment option. It has been well established that T lymphocytes destroy infected cells. These T cells also produce long lasting immunity...
The fundamentals of crystallisation and glass formation are not yet fully understood. Colloidal suspensions have been shown to be promising model systems for understanding these processes. As colloidal motion is Brownian, rather than ballistic, kinetics and dynamics can be studied in real-time. It is well documented that colloidal suspensions can “successfully crystallise” when the particles...
Many avenues exist for synthesizing upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), such as hydrothermal, solvothermal, solid-state reactions, thermal decomposition, amongst others. Here we compare three hydro-solvothermal synthesis processes for producing K2YbF5:Er and K2YbF5:Tm UCNPs, each having a different order of addition of reagents. The first method (A) adds together potassium hydroxide, oleic...
Metal oxides have shown incredible potential as electrode materials for pseudocapacitive applications due to their high capacitance, good conductivity, electrochemical reversibility, and long cyclability. Through the engineering and manipulation of defect types and their concentrations, it is possible to enhance the kinetics of charge transfer and charge-discharge process to optimize redox...
A hard x-ray Nanoprobe beamline is under construction at the Australian Synchrotron, aiming to accept first users for operation in July, 2024. In this presentation we will outline the science case for the Nanoprobe along with the anticipated performance parameters and show examples of measurements that will be enabled by the facility. In particular, core methods supported by the Nanoprobe...
Surface preparation of steelwork for structural repainting is often conducted by sandblasting method in which abrasives (sands) are blasted onto the painted surface at high speed, removing the old paint and rust/dirt by the impact of the blast. This conventional method would cause irreversible damage to the underlying substrate, deteriorating its mechanical and fatigue performance. Laser...
The MEX1 beamline high resolution crystal spectrometer, spectroMEX, comprises a Johann-type point-to-point focusing geometry crystal spectrometer employing five spherically bent crystals on a 0.5 m diameter Rowland circle. The primary application of spectroMEX is high energy resolution fluorescence-detected (HERFD) XANES, wherein fluorescence XANES is collected with an energy resolution of the...
Biological cell membranes are a critical component of all living organisms. The cell membrane is a semi-permeable lipid bilayer controlling movement of ions and other molecules from one of the cell side to the other, and is primarily made up of amphiphilic lipid molecules.
Our research group has previously developed a model system whereby a lipid bilayer is tethered to a solid supporting...
The Medium Energy X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (MEX) Beamline at the Australian Synchrotron is currently being commissioned and is due to start running user experiments in the second half of 2022.
The facility will provide a series of specialised sample environments for users to conduct in situ measurements of important scientific processes. One of these sample environments will be a...
Terpolymerization is a widely used method to control crystallinity of the semiconducting polymers which has been exploited to improve the photovoltaic performance of all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs). Applying this strategy to the well-studied n-type polymer acceptor PNDI2OD-T2, different amounts of 3-n-octylthiophene (OT) are used to partially replace the bithiophene (T2) unit, resulting in...
Infrared (IR) spectroscopy provides information on the chemical composition of materials, based on the absorption of infrared light by the vibrating bonds within molecular groups. IR microspectroscopy, using synchrotron light as the infrared source, enables this analysis to be performed on samples as small as 1 – 2 $\mu$m in size, with a sensitivity not possible in the laboratory. ANSTO’s...
At the time that the KOALA Laue single-crystal neutron diffractometer came into service at ANSTO, a review of VIVALDI, the progenitor instrument at the ILL led to its deletion from their User program. Against this background, we were seeing a dearth of single-crystal neutron studies published in the literature. To our joy, in usage, we found the instrument to be readily applicable to the...
Global warming is a current hot topic due to its potential for irreversible environmental damage. Ambitions were made within the Paris agreement to limit the temperature rise to be below 1.5 ºC pre-industrial level. Therefore, alternative fuel sources are needed to replace fossil fuel, with hydrogen gas is one popular choice due to its high energy density per unit weight, and technologies...
Accurate neutron structures of the 20 naturally occurring amino acids that are the building blocks of proteins are key to investigations of polymorphism, condensed-phase NMR analysis, periodic density-functional-theory calculations, as restraints in X-ray protein refinements, and as initial structures in the computer modelling of proteins. The first 16 members of the family were determined in...
