Joint-School grant will provide new instrumentation Dr Caroline Kirk and Dr Chris Stock (from the School of Physics and Astronomy) have been awarded an EPSRC grant, through the core equipment scheme, entitled “CSEC–Based Facility for X-ray Characterisation of Materials”. The total value of the grant is £600,000. This grant will provide funding to purchase three new pieces of equipment: a new state of the art multi-purpose X-ray powder diffractometer, dedicated to carrying out complex diffraction experiments under different conditions of temperature, humidity and flow; a modern microfocus Laue instrument for phase mapping in samples, grain boundary mapping and alignment for additional experiments at CSEC and central facilities; a benchtop X-ray fluorescence spectrometer. These new instruments will upgrade, enhance and complement current X-ray equipment across the College of Science and Engineering. This new X-ray facility will support research using current local equipment and central facilities, facilitate new research, attract future funding, and also open up CSEC as a small user facility to support UKRI funded academics and industry. This new CSEC-based X-ray facility will transform our X-ray capabilities across the College of Science and Engineering. It will allow us to deliver new research in the areas of materials science and engineering and open up the wonderful world of X-rays to new colleagues. It is an exciting opportunity and I can’t wait to have our new pieces of X-ray equipment onsite in 2021! Dr Caroline Kirk Publication date 18 Nov, 2020
