Characterisation of nanostructured materials by combination of neutron scattering and 3D stochastic reconstruction techniques

Abstract

Ceramic nanostructured materials have recently gained scientific and industrial interest due to their unique properties. A series of such nanoporous structures were characterized by Small Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) and by Ultra Small Angle Neutron Scattering (USANS) techniques. The scattering data have been evaluated by using a generalised form of the indirect Fourier transformation method suitable for concentrated systems and compared with those obtained from nitrogen and mercury porosimetry measurements. In addition, by Fourier inversion, the autocorrelation functions were evaluated from the scattering data. A stochastic reconstruction model was employed to generate 3D images of the porous material with the same porosity and autocorrelation function as the original ceramic materials. A comparison between the experimental autocorrelation functions and the reconstructed media autocorrelation functions is presented too. Finally, simulation results of permeation on the reconstructed images provide good agreement with experimental data.