2020 USRA - Development of High-Resolution Paid Distribution X-ray Scattering with applications to Polymers

Job Information

Development of High-Resolution Paid Distribution X-ray Scattering with applications to Polymers

Proposed Start Date:  April 27, 2020

Job Description

The student should have some experience programing and will be working with Python which has proven to be a very powerful solution for interpreting experimental results. The student will also be taught how to conduct measurements with our in-house x-ray diffraction system. The student will help characterize and better understand the structure-property relationship of polymer tubing provided to us by our industrial collaborator, Pexcor Manufacturing Company Inc. There are real puzzles to be solved, and the student will be an important part of the team. We anticipate to solve these problems will require the development of a new approach the interpreting x-ray data. We will divide the tasks between the members of the team as to make the productive use of the summer months

Supervisor

Stefan Kycia, Professor
Department of Physics

Brief Outline of Proposed Research Project

Our research group has been developing non-traditional x-ray diffraction methods. We are applying these methods to better understand some of today’s more challenging structure problems such as the atomic arrangements in amorphous solids, bulk metallic glasses, polymers and nanomaterials. This has significance to the development of modern materials with superior properties. The student will be working as a member of our team of graduate students, visiting professor and professor to make progress in the interpretation of a novel technique we call 3D pair distribution function method. We already have preliminary data to work with and are continuously acquiring more at the Canadian Light Source and our in-house laboratory.