Smart*Light 2.0

ongoing

Within the Interreg V project Smart*Light, an X-ray instrument was developed to carry out high-quality X-ray analyses. These analyses analyse the structure of materials, objects and tissues and also how this structure changes during manufacture and use. A better understanding of this can not only lead to stronger and more sustainable materials but also to a greater understanding of how certain processes such as failure behaviour of materials and bleaching of pigments in paintings can be inhibited or prevented. High-quality material analyses with a “table model synchrotron” In Smart*Light 2.0 there is a next step: the configuration of a reliable and optimised instrument for specific X-ray analysis techniques. The focus is on fluorescence, diffraction, scattering, spectroscopy and tomography. With this, the elementary structure, the atomic structure, the nanostructure, the chemical structure and the 3D structure can be determined on a sub-mm scale. All these techniques are essential for the understanding of materials. In order to be able to use the instrument as broadly and sustainably as possible, an optimisation step is required for each for these X-ray analysis techniques. By carrying out pilot activities with various materials such as metals, semiconductor technology, tissue and heritage, the instrument will be further optimised. The objective is to have at the end of the project period an instrument that can be used by the Dutch and Flemish research community and which can then be developed into a fully-fledged research tool.

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