ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

Temperature dependent structure of glassy carbon - a new cell material for high-temperature molten samples

Abstract: High temperature melts, especially molten oxides, are highly challenging to deal with as samples in neutron experiments due to their reactive, corrosive and inviscid nature. Recently, thin-walled Pt cells have been used in conjunction with beam masking to obtain good-quality diffraction data on SANDALS up to 1300 K. Above this temperature, sample loss due to the open cell exposing the sample to vacuum was experienced. Thus there is a need for improved cell materials to allow the sample to remain either sealed within the cell, or to be exposed to a controlled gas composition and pressure, at temperatures above 1300 K. Such cells would need to withstand elevated pressures, requiring reasonably thick walls. Thick walled Pt is not suitable due to strong Bragg diffraction arising from it (as well as expense). Standard materials such as silica, V or TiZr are not suitable since they react with oxide melts. A possible solution is glassy carbon, which has all of the desirable characteristics, including minimal Bragg scattering, very low incoherent scattering, low reactivity and wetting with oxide melts and high strength. This XPress measurement is to study the temperature dependent diffraction pattern from a glassy carbon rod (SIGRADUR G), to assess its suitability as a container material from the neutron scattering perspective, and in particular to confirm that any structural evolution with temperature is reversible upon cooling, which would allow cells to be reusable.

Experimenter: Dr Emma Barney
Experimenter: Mr Reuben Tosh
Local Contact: Dr Oliver Alderman

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2500092

ISIS Experiment Number: RB2500092

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
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Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Dr Emma Barney et al; (2025): Temperature dependent structure of glassy carbon - a new cell material for high-temperature molten samples, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB2500092

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.