Research project

University of Southampton - Equipment Account

Project overview

X-ray diffraction is the main technique by which scientists and engineers study the structures of crystalline materials, however some sample types are often neglected due to the requirement for specialised instrumentation and expertise. This proposal provides advanced equipment to apply diffraction and related methods to a series of lesser-studied sample types of great importance in technology and in understanding environmental processes. These include thin layers of material on surfaces, where information about atomic separations, particle sizes, crystal orientation and changes in the size of the lattice due to interactions with the underlying material can be obtained. This will be critical to the understanding of a range of functional materials with applications in energy conversion and storage, electronics, optoelectronics and engineering. It will also be possible to study very small regions of a material, this is important in examination of single components or regions of a sample where variations are important in understanding properties. Sample types include minerals, where the structure of individual grains will contribute to knowledge of interactions with the environment, and single components of grids of material designed to have specific interactions with light.

Staff

Lead researchers

Professor Mark Spearing

Vice-President (Research & Enterprise)
Connect with Mark

Research outputs

Gabriela Kissling, Mohsin Aziz, Andrew Lodge, Wenjian Zhang, Mehrdad Alibouri, Ruomeng Huang, Andrew L. Hector, Gillian Reid, Cornelis De Groot, Richard Beanland, Philip N. Bartlett & David C. Smith, 2018, Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 165(16), D802-D807
Type: article
Gabriela Kissling, Ruomeng Huang, Andrew Jolleys, Sophie L Benjamin, Andrew L. Hector, Gillian Reid, William Levason, Cornelis De Groot & Philip N. Bartlett, 2018, Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 165(11), D557-D567
Type: article
Benjamin Gray, Andrew Hector, Marek Jura, John Owen & Joshua Whittam, 2017, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 5(9), 4550-4559
Type: article
Calum Robertson, Andrew W. Lodge, Peter Basa, Marina Carravetta, Andrew L. Hector, Reza Jalili Kashtiban, Jeremy Sloan, David C. Smith, Joseph Spencer & Alain Walcarius, 2016, RSC Advances, 6, 113432-113441
Type: article
Xianji Li, Andrew L. Hector, John R. Owen & S. Imran U. Shah, 2016, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 4(14), 5081-5087
Type: article