The study of reactions and processes is key to understanding materials function, failure, and flaws. Representative quantification of materials phase composition and crystal structure evolution drives the development of materials and systems with superior function and performance, and powder diffraction is a robust and reliable method capable of providing this information.
In practice, the accurate and representative measurement of reactions and processes using powder diffraction is not trivial. Although advances in instrumentation such as detector technology enable fast data collection, the complexity of modern materials couples with the challenge of designing sample environments that both replicate real-world reaction conditions and are compatible with measurement instrumentation to make such experiments difficult to achieve. Consequently, the understanding gained from experiments targeting reactions and processes in materials must include the careful consideration of the limitations of methods and approaches used.
This talk will highlight time resolved powder diffraction studies that follow materials transformation under controlled temperature and environmental conditions relevant to understanding reactions and processes underpinning materials function and performance. Example studies using instrumentation at the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering and the Australian Synchrotron with a focus on experimental designs that achieve reaction conditions targeting representative material processes will be presented, and include electrochemical processes in batteries1,2, phase and compositional changes of fuel cell cathodes under different working conditions3,4, and corrosion reactions of nuclear fuels5-8.