Workshop on advanced structural characterization for materials with challenge structures

• Grant number: 25/15104-3
• Support Opportunities: Organization Grants - Organization of Scientific Meeting
• Start date: December 01, 2025
• End date: November 30, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Materials and Metallurgical Engineering - Nonmetallic Materials
• Principal Investigator: Edson Roberto Leite
• Grantee: Edson Roberto Leite
• Host Institution: Centro Nacional de Pesquisa em Energia e Materiais (CNPEM). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• City of the host institution: Campinas

Abstract

Structural characterization of challenging materials requires the acquisition of total scattering data from x-rays, neutron or electron diffraction. Presently, electron diffraction ePDF data have not yet reached a fully quantitative analysis state. With the advances in Transmission Electron Microscopy in the past decade, electron diffraction could be raised as an alternative for structural characterization using total scattering. Detector's improvement, mostly with more sensitive and higher counting capabilities, allow us now to acquire the scattering data that could be used to extract the crystallographic atomic arrangement by several methods such as Automated Electron Diffraction and Electron Pair Distribution Function. Likewise, X-ray scattering is a powerful characterization tool that goes beyond the simple phase identification and the X-ray total scattering data is now widely used to characterize challenge materials like nanoparticles, high-entropy alloys, clusters and amorphous materials. High energy X-ray sources are required to fulfill those analysis and synchrotron radiation now can achieve unprecedent resolution (extended reciprocal space scattering acquisition, Qmax). The same is true for neutron total scattering analysis, however the access to neutron sources and the amount of sample required makes general analysis more difficult, even though neutron resolution being the highest among the three high energy sources. The workshop will put together a specialist on those three areas to discuss and make future scientific collaboration to bring those techniques, side by side, as an advanced characterization tools for challenging materials, which have enormous possibilities to solve scientific problems in important areas like health, energy and quantum materials. (AU)