Grazing Incidence Scattering – Status and Perspectives in Soft Matter and Biophysics

Publication date: Available online 11 April 2019Source: Current Opinion in Colloid & Interface ScienceAuthor(s): Sebastian Jaksch, Thomas Gutberlet, Peter Müller-BuschbaumAbstractInvestigating lateral structures of surfaces and interfaces from the mesoscale down to atomic resolution is of growing interest to modify, functionalize and understand the behavior of materials in soft matter and biophysics. Grazing incidence scattering (GIS) techniques have proven to be very powerful for such kind of studies. Using X-rays and neutrons also buried lateral structures can be accessed in a non-destructive way. The large probed sample area provides a high statistical relevance of the determined structure information and complex sample environments in combination with in-situ and in-operando experiments provide the full potential for gaining deep in-insights in structure formation processes. In the brief review we reflect on the current state of the art of GIS techniques using X-rays and neutrons, fields of interest and applications in soft matter and biophysics, resulting challenges and provide a short outlook. Due to the already available literature on X-ray based techniques we will set a slight emphasis on neutron based techniques.Graphical abstractInvestigating lateral structures of surfaces and interfaces from the mesoscale down to atomic resolution is of growing interest to modify, functionalize and understand the behavior of materials in soft matter and biophysics. Grazing inciden...
Source: Current Opinion in Colloid and Interface Science - Category: Chemistry Source Type: research