Rheology and SAXS in one go with a laboratory SAXS system - method and applications

P. M. Worsch, Franz Pirolt, Heiner Santner and H.M.A. Ehmann

Anton Paar GmbH, Anton-Paar-Straße 20, 8054 Graz, Austria
peter.worsch@anton-paar.com

Material research in all its complexity continuously calls for new analysis solutions to solve sophisticated issues in one go. It often requires the visualization of structural information in the nano scale to complement simultaneous investigations of the rheological behavior. The RheoSAXS system from Anton Paar is the first commercially available instrument that allows using both methods simultaneously in one setup in the lab. RheoSAXS resolves the combined information of your sample within minutes.

In this contribution we present a novel experimental set-up for performing combined Rheo-SAXS studies with the SAXSpoint 2.0 laboratory SAXS system. The integrated Rheo-SAXS sample stage enables temperature-controlled rheological experiments with in-situ determination of shear-induced structural changes of nanostructured materials on a nanoscopic length scale (from approx. 1 nm to 200 nm) by small-angle X-ray scattering.

The Rheo-SAXS unit includes a rheological sample compartment which is integrated in the evacuated SAXS measurement chamber. The rheometer measuring head comprises a high-precision air-bearing motor which holds and controls the rheological scattering measuring system in the SAXS instrument chamber.

We present different combined rheology-SAXS studies of colloidal systems for investigating shear-induced structural changes at the nanometer level which were performed with this novel and optimized Rheo-SAXS laboratory set-up.

Figure 1: Rheo-SAXS set-up