Equipment: MRI: Track 1 Acquisition of a Laboratory-based Instrument for in situ X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy

This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award supports the acquisition of a laboratory-based X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) instrument for spectroscopic studies to probe the chemical state, electronic structure, and local coordination environment of atoms that underpins research questions spanning materials science, chemistry, geosciences, environmental sciences, chemical engineering, and condensed matter physics including in catalysis, functional materials, metallurgy, and metals in medicine. This laboratory-based instrument overcomes limitations associated with traditional XAS measurements at large synchrotron facilities.

Regular instrument access allows feedback for material synthesis efforts, and long duration studies of transformations that occur over months. As needed, measurements can be coordinated with specialized sample preparation facilities at Stony Brook University and can be integrated with advanced sample environments and controls. The instrument facilitates training of the next generation of instrumentalists, with its virtual beamline layout providing trainees the opportunity to design, test, and optimize new experiments and instrumentation—activities that are difficult to accommodate at synchrotron beamlines.

The instrument broadens participation in science and engineering research by providing a research capability, that could previously only be accessed through travel to synchrotrons, which may be inaccessible to some individuals. Undergraduate trainees at Stony Brook University and the nearby Farmingdale State College are introduced to XAS as a tool for advanced characterization measurements.

The XAS instrument operates as a multi-user facility housed within the Chemistry Department at Stony Brook University. High quality spectra can be acquired for elements from Ti to Nb, and I to Am, using a high-powered X-ray tube coupled to modern X-ray optics and detectors. Acquisition of multiple spectra in short time frames allows for high-throughput sample characterization, and real-time tracking of reaction processes to enable operando studies of catalysis, to understand functional materials, to resolve open questions in metallurgy, and to interrogate redox states fundamental to geosciences and environmental science.

The utility and utilization of the instrument is optimized through use of custom multi-sample changers, specific to different sample formats and sample environments and reactors are optimized for studies of dynamic states and reactions. Key projects enabled addresses the local structure of mono and heterometallic molecular catalysts, the mechanism for capacity loss in battery electrodes, and the progressively degradation of selective gas-binding in porous sorbents and catalysts over months-years of operation.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.