AVS 58th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition
    Neutron Scattering Focus Topic Wednesday Sessions
       Session NT+AS-WeA

Paper NT+AS-WeA4
Probing Fractals by the Combined Ultra-Small- and Small-Angle Neutron Scattering (USANS/SANS) Technique

Wednesday, November 2, 2011, 3:00 pm, Room 207

Session: Applications of Neutron Scattering II
Presenter: Michael Agamalian, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
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Many natural and man-made materials exhibiting multi-level morphology (atoms – molecules – aggregates – agglomerates), in other words, existence of intermediate structural units between atomic/molecular and macroscopic levels, usually call hierarchical structures. The combined USANS/SANS is one of the best techniques using at present time for characterization of the hierarchical structures, which in many cases shows fractal behavior. The current presentation is focused at the mass and surface fractals discovered experimentally in the sedimentary rocks, attractive colloidal glasses and aggregates of soot particles in MCT-30 engine oil. Some of the fractal structures, particularly the surface fractals in rocks, are extended over three orders of magnitude in the length scale; therefore, application of the combine USANS/SANS technique, which covers the Q-range extended over five orders of magnitude in the reciprocal space (2x10-5 Å-1 < Q < 1 Å-1), is required to obtain complete structural information for complicated hierarchical structures with fractals.