The Chemistry Department at Northern Illinois University in conjunction with colleagues from the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago will acquire high brilliance X-ray optical components to upgrade the ChemMatCARS synchrotron x-ray user facility at the Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory with this award from the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program. This upgrade should increase the brilliance and beam coherence and extend the energy range from 30 to 40 keV. This will expand the capabilities of present measurements and enable experiments that are currently not available.
This user facility provides a unique high brilliance x-ray resource for the study of surface, interfacial and bulk properties of liquids and solids on length scales ranging from the atomic to the mesoscopic. The research activities enabled by the ChemMatCARS user facility set the pace in adapting synchrotron techniques to best serve the chemistry community; contribute to the development of improved materials, notably plastics, membranes and nano-composites; serve as a training ground for researchers at all levels; and expand the synchrotron user community into archeology, anthropology and forensics.
