Colloquium 11/15/13 - Neutron Research in Material Science

This seminar will review the recent advances that have been made in understanding the important role that hydrogen plays both within mineral structures as well as confined on the mineral surfaces. Neutrons, as opposed to X-rays, are efficiently scattered by hydrogen and deuterium, so neutron diffraction provides an ideal method to determine the location of hydrogen sites in crystal structures. The hydrogen environments within these structures are diverse and great strides have been made in understanding how such “interior” hydrogen affects their thermodynamic and physical properties. In addition, H₂O is ubiquitous on the surfaces of minerals, in particular metal oxide nanoparticles. Results from recent calorimetric and inelastic neutron scattering experiments will be presented that have explored the effect that H₂O confined on the surfaces of mineral nanoparticles has on their stability as well as their physical and chemical properties.