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Bringing X-ray Absorption Spectroscopies to the Benchtop

Gerald T. Seidler (Physics Department, University of Washington)

Contemporary research in many branches of fundamental and applied science makes important use of x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), including x-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) and very high resolution x-ray fluorescence analysis, often called x-ray emission spectroscopy (XES). These techniques are almost exclusively performed at synchrotron facilities having outstanding beam flux, brilliance, and time-resolution, in addition to world-class endstation equipment and user support. However, experimental programs at synchrotron user facilities suffer from limited overall access, limited opportunities for exploratory work to educate new users, high travel costs, and slow development cycles for the development of ancillary apparatus for special sample environments.
In this talk I'll report on an ongoing research effort aimed at softening or bypassing the above limitations through a modernization of in-house XAS instrumentation using only conventional x-ray tubes. After providing background on XAFS and XES, I will address both hard x-ray spectrometers operating at 6 keV and higher photon energies, and also a new miniature tender x-ray spectrometer that is particularly useful for S and P. Numerous examples of applications will be given, including: in operando studies of batteries; determination of the Cr(III)/Cr(VI) ratio in plastics; studies of Fe local coordination in glasses proposed for long-term storage of low-activity nuclear waste; sulfur speciation in biochars and fossil fuels; and phosphorous speciation in InP nanophases used in solar energy harvesting.

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