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Specimen Name: NIST nSoft Consortium
Vital Statistics:
“Soft materials” are the basis of plastics and composites—critical
for producing everything from consumer goods to automobiles,
but the light elements in these materials are difficult to observe and
study with traditional tools. Neutrons, however, interact strongly
with these light elements and are ideal for studying soft materials.
The NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) operates facilities
designed for users from both industry and academia to study
neutron interactions with matter.
The goal of NIST’s nSoft Consortium is to bring together
companies and enable them to use neutron measurements to
improve products made from soft matter. NIST scientists share
their experience with member companies and together they work
to identify and develop new measurement tools for understanding
soft materials. Members participate in experiments, training
programs, and meetings that enable them to adopt neutron-based
tools into their research plans and conduct their own proprietary research using NIST facilities.
Success Factors:
Formal operations at nSoft started with a kickoff meeting on August 14, 2012, and included a
dozen companies from industries such as petroleum-based energy products, basic chemicals,
consumer goods, and pharmaceuticals. The consortium’s main technical objectives are to explore
material morphology and topology, materials characterization under flow and strain, and shear and structure of softmaterial interfaces.
Molecular topology is a critical parameter of manufacturing soft
materials. nSoft is developing neutron scattering and imaging methods
to measure the spatial position and shape of long-chain branched
polyolefins, used to control the flow rate and mechanical properties of
the commodity plastics industry.
Incorporating a Couette rheometer on a SANS instrument (“rheo-
SANS”) demonstrates the capacity of neutrons to probe soft materials
under dynamic conditions. nSoft will build on this effort at the NCNR to
develop in situ measurements using a Sentmanat extensional rheometer,
large amplitude oscillatory shear technology, and hyperbolic inlets to
measure materials under high shear rates (approaching 1 million s-1).
About the Innovators:
The consortium is led by nSoft director Ronald Jones and NIST
researchers Eric Lin, Dan Neumann, and Robert Dimeo. Members
include Dow Chemical, DuPont, Genentech, Kimberly-Clark,
MedImmune, Solvay, Chevron Phillips, ExxonMobil, and several others.
What’s Next:
Soft materials are defined by their interfaces, including surfactants at an
oil/water interface, polymer adsorbtion at a filler interface in composites, and
the interphase between amorphous and crystalline regions in polyolefins.
Depth penetration and sensitivity to contrast variations at internal interfaces
allow neutrons to probe soft material interfaces, even during application of
shear. Methods such as the overflowing cylinder, dynamic Langmuir trough,
and time-resolved SANS are in development to probe this key component of
material design for manufacturing.
Contact Details:
Ronald Jones, nSoft Director
NIST Material Measur
enter for Neutron Research
100 Bure
D 20899-8553
301/975-4624,
gov, www.nist.gov/nSoft
A flow cell being developed for
interfacial studies of soft materials and
fluids.
SucceSS AnAlySiS
ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES • APRIL 2014
The Couette rheometer sample environment
for the 30-m SANS instrument at the NIST
Center for Neutron Research.
Small angle neutron scattering
(SANS) data demonstrate
increasing contrast of the long
period of a linear polyethylene
with increasing exposure time
to d-cyclohexane vapor (from
Kim and Glinka, 2009).