Adél Len

The small angle neutron scattering (SANS) method is a technique for studying nanometer scale structural features in various materials such as porous media, ceramics, metals etc. The very low energies of thermal neutrons allow them to penetrate in most materials without destructing them therefore the obtained informations are characteristic to whole studied volume of the sample.

The “Yellow Submarine” SANS spectrometer operating at the research reactor at Budapest Neutron Center is a unique large-scale facility in the Central European region. It covers a scattering vector range from 0.002Å^-1 to 0.5Å^-1 allowing inhomogeneities in materials to be studied on a length scale from 10Å to 1500Å. SANS technique makes possible the determination of void sizes in porous media such as cementes, marbles; observing the unisotropy in the precipitates orientation in minerals or metals, as well as the investigation of particle agglomeration in ceramic bodies and evolution of pores during different types of processing.

Characteristic examples which give an impression about the using of SANS method in nanoscale structure investigations are to be shown.