Dynamic X-ray diffraction with advanced synchrotron radiation sources: methodologies for applications in biological and material systems technological

• Grant number: 21/01004-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• Effective date (Start): August 01, 2021
• Effective date (End): February 28, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Condensed Matter Physics
• Principal Investigator: Sérgio Luiz Morelhão
• Grantee: Rafaela Felix da Silva Penacchio
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física (IF). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Dynamic X-ray diffraction offers unprecedented possibilities in terms of structural resolution. However, the technique of measuring simultaneous diffractions is limited by the need to predict in advance the ideal experimental conditions to resolve the structural details relevant to the properties of the systems; details that are inaccessible by conventional methods. Based on variations in model structures, specific computational tools were developed (in a student's scientific initiation project) to show whether certain details of the structures, such as small fluctuations in ionic charges and differences in atomic displacement parameters, can be solved by technique in question. In this project, using these tools and experiments with synchrotron radiation, the possibilities of dynamic X-ray diffraction will be extensively investigated in challenging studies such as detecting electron charge and radiation damage on hydrogen bonds in pure amino acids and doped with metal ions and unraveling the phonon dispersion mechanism in thermoelectric materials of the skutterudite class. (AU)