In recent years, many countries have become increasingly concerned about environmental issues, and are accelerating their efforts to reduce their environmental impact by reducing dependence on fossil fuels (coal and oil) to achieve the carbon neutral. Developed countries and manufacturers are creating social policies and manufacturing strategies for low environmental load. Thus, the demand for advanced polymer materials has increased annually for use in products related to energy conservation, such as electric vehicles, fuel cells and biodegradable plastics. Structural control at the crystal structure scale (nanoscale) is one of the most important issues in their development and manufacturing of functional polymer materials for polymer electrolyte membranes for fuel cells, battery separators, biodegradable polymers, and bulk reinforced plastics, as well as films and fibers.
Wide-Angle X-ray Scattering (WAXS) / Wide Angle X-ray Diffraction (WAXD) is widely used for structural analysis of functional polymer materials. In particular, 2D-WAXS measurements using a two-dimensional (2D) detector are widely used for the identification of crystal structures, evaluation of selected orientations, and measurement of crystallinity of polymers. In general, the periodic structure of polymers has a spacing size of 0.2 nm to 1.8 nm, and diffraction peaks are observed in a scattering angle 2θ range between 5° and 45° when using Cu Kα radiation (λ=0.15418 nm). Therefore it is necessary to measure a wide region with a large scattering angle.
In this paper, we introduce the latest wide-angle X-ray scattering measurement system NANOPIX-WE. While NANOPIX is designed for advanced small-angle X-ray scattering measurements (SAXS), NANOPIX-WE is optimized for WAXS measurements, with a scattering angle of 2θ between 3° and 65°. Its high-intensity X-rays enable not only static measurements but also in situ measurements with controlled temperature and external fields, and high-speed time-resolved measurements. This new product has been developed to allow structural evaluation of polymeric materials such as films, fibers and bulk materials in various environments, but it can also perform 2D-WAXS measurements on inorganic materials such as powders and metallic materials.