BL11-NCD received its first two official user groups

Home institution of the first group is the Instituto de Estructura de la Materia – Soft and polymeric matter, CSIC, Madrid, Spain. The research team spent four days at Alba and carried out wide angle X–ray scattering, WAXS, measurements of tape casted polymer-carbon nanofibre composites with the aim to investigate the origin of their positive temperature coefficients.

The second user group belongs to the Physics Department – Facultat de Ciències – Nanomaterials and Microsystems group, Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) Spain. Scientists from the UAB studied the molecular packing arrangement in highly stable organic glasses using a Linkam stage for sample temperature control and the WAXS setup of the station. The objective was to investigate the temperature stability of the organic glasses. Thermal ramps above the glass transition temperature were set and the evolution of the structure as the material underwent gradual recrystallization was followed. Glasses grown from the vapour are expected to be more stable against crystallization than standard pharmaceutical drugs. Below are three examples shown of data collected during this visit.

Fig.1: 2-dimensional WAXS patterns of a pharmaceutical drug evaluated at different temperatures during a heating ramp set to 2 K/min. a) Amorphous drug at room temperature, b) and c) snapshots illustrating gradual recrystallization of the amorphous material at 110 and 150^oC.