Laboratorio di Diffrattometria a Raggi X Cristallo Singolo

Referente
Fabrizio Nestola

Attività

Single-crystal X-ray diffraction is the most powerful experimental technique to determine the crystal structure of a crystalline compound. Therefore, it represents the first step to “explore” the crystalline material properties.

RESEARCH FIELDS

Compressibility.
Physical properties of minerals.
Crystal structure evolution under non ambient conditions.
Determination of thermodynamic properties of feldspars, olivine, antigorite, clino and orthopyroxenes, garnets, spinels as a function of composition and pressure and their applications to geodynamics and geophysics of the Earth’s crust and mantle.
Investigation of new mineral species.
Identification and characterization of mineral inclusions in diamonds from upper and lower mantle. Develop of new experimental approach for measurements the inclusions in situ preserving the diamonds.
Mineralogy of surface of Mercury from remote sensing acquisition in the Bepi Colombo ESA space mission.
Structure solving of new MOF compounds.

Strumentazione

Gli strumenti presenti nel laboratorio sono:
- diffrattometro a 4 cerchi STOE STADI IV a rivelatore puntuale, operante con il software SINGLE (Angel and Finger, 2011) per misure ad elevata precisione;
- diffrattometro a 4 cerchi STOE STADI IV a rivelatore areale CCD (Oxford Diffraction) per determinazioni strutturali.
Il laboratorio dispone di 3 incudini di diamante tipo ETH (Zurigo), che permettono misure diffrattometriche in-situ ad altissima pressione per simulare le condizioni presenti nel mantello terrestre.
Il laboratorio è coinvolto in numerose collaborazioni nazionali e internazionali riguardanti la cristallografia di base e la cristallografia in condizioni estreme di pressione.

STOE STADI IV 4-circle diffractometer equipped with Mo source and point detector, operating with the SINGLE software (Angel and Finger, 2011) to perform high-accuracy and high-precision unit-cell parameter determination:

	$Diffraction peak centered using SINGLE$
Point detector STOE STADI IV	Diffraction peak centered using SINGLE

STOE STADI IV 4-circle diffractometer equipped with Mo source and area detector CCD detector (Oxford Diffraction) suitable for rapid identification and structure determination:

	$Diffraction pattern collected using a CCD detector$
CCD area detector STOE STADI IV	Diffraction pattern collected using a CCD detector

Three diamond anvil cells (DAC, ETH type) are available to perform in-situ high pressure measurements to reproduce in the laboratory the high-pressure conditions of the Earth’s mantle: