The liquid-metal-jet technology has developed from prototypes into fully operational and stable X-ray tubes running in many labs over the world. Key applications include X-ray diffraction and scattering, but recently several publications have also shown very impressive X-ray computed tomography results using the liquid-metal-jet anode technology. Based on these developments of advanced electron optics, a new nanofocus x-ray tube is developed. The foundation of the new nanofocus x-ray tube is the advanced electron optics, combined with a tungsten coated diamond transmission target. The new nanofocus x-ray tube is designed to reach line-spacing resolution of 150 nm. The new nanofocus x-ray tube furthermore has the unique feature that it internally measures and reports the current spot size before each scan is stared – which is of course of great importance to understand the best achievable resolution.
The presentation will include unique work done by various users using Excillum's Nanotube for nano CT and imaging of variety of organic and inorganic materials. The applications include imaging of computer chips for counterfeit, nanoCT of worms to study their locomotive mechanisms and nano CT of first Diatom and study of its shell and core.
The spatio-temporal distribution (4D) of water in porous materials plays a fundamental role in many natural and technological processes. The dynamics of water transport is strongly entangled with the material’s pore-scale structure. Understanding their correlation requires imaging simultaneously the 4D water distribution and the porous microstructure. To date, 4D images with high temporal and spatial resolution have been mainly acquired by attenuation-based X-ray micro-tomography, whereby pure water is substituted by saline solutions with high atomic number components to improve image contrast. The use of saline solutions is however not always desirable, as the altered fluid properties may affect the transport process as well or, as it is the case for hydrating cement-based materials, they may modify the chemical reactions and their kinetics. In this study, we aimed at visualizing pure water transport in porous building materials by a new implementation of fast Talbot interferometry-based multi-contrast X-ray micro-tomography at the P07 beamline of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht at DESY. We report results from a mortar specimen imaged at three different stages during evaporative drying. We show the possibility of visualizing simultaneously the microstructure and the pore-scale water redistribution by the phase contrast images. In addition, different solid material phases are clearly distinguished in these images. The higher contrast between water and the porous substrate, achievable in the phase contrast images, compared with the attenuation ones, empowers new analysis and allows investigating the correlation between the drying process and the porous microstructure. The approach offers the possibility of studying other chemically inert or reactive water transport processes without any chemical or physical perturbation of the processes themselves.
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