With approximately 80 faculty and students in attendance from many countries, especially from throughout Central America, Diego G. Lamas (National University of San Martínand and CONICET, National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Argentina; President of the Latin American Crystallographic Association) gave a LAAMP Colloquium presentation on Técnicas de luz sincrotrón para caracterización avanzada de materiales during the opening day of the OpenLab Costa Rica, on 4 December 2017.

The colloquium was introduced by Michele Zema (IUCr; member of LAAMP Executive Committee). The Director of Scientific and Technological Development of Costa Rican Minister of Science and Technology, the Director of Natural Science sector from UNESCO office for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, the President of the National Research Council and top officials from local universities and other academic institutions were among those attending the colloquium and providing welcomes.

ABSTRACT

Técnicas de luz sincrotrón para caracterización avanzada de materiales

In this colloquium, the generation and unique features of the synchrotron light will be introduced, along with some examples of synchtrotron X-ray techniques that are used for advanced characterization of materials: X-ray powder diffraction (XPD), Small-Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) and X-ray absorption spectroscopies (XAS). In the case of XPD and SAXS techniques, it will be shown that, even though both of them can be carried out with conventional X-ray sources, the used of synchrotron light provides important advantages such as its high photon flux and low beam divergence. Contrarily, XAS spectroscopies (XANES and EXAFS) are performed in synchrotron facilities because they require a continuous energy spectrum and high intensity. As examples, some applications for the characterization of nanomaterials will be discussed.