Scattering studies of large scale structures at the ultra small angle neutron scattering instrument S18

In recent years ultra small angle neutron scattering (USANS) has developed into a powerful standard method for large scale structure investigations. The upgraded instrument S18 at the ILL's 58MW high flux reactor is operated routinely with increasing beam time demand. The performance of the instrument and its abilities will be discussed in this paper. A peak to background ratio better than 105 is reached using Agamalian's tail reduction method. A q-range from 2.10−5 up to 5.10−2Å−1 can be covered. This allows a clear overlap with standard pinhole SANS instruments. The new way collecting scattering data logarithmically equidistant in q-space saves measuring time. This allows measuring times of about 1.5h for strong scattering specimens with reasonable statistics. We will present an overview of recent experiments which have been performed in co-operation with different groups from the international user community. This work comprises of structure investigations of petroliferous sedimentary rocks showing fractal scattering behaviour and time resolved USANS studies of the dynamics of hydration of cement paste. Concerning soft matter structures, Pirelli rubber nanocomposites have been investigated. In addition, time resolved measurement on a D2O solution of a PPO–PEO–PPO block copolymer (Reverse Pluronic 25R5) and the dynamics of phase separation of methyl-hydroxy-propyl cellulose (MHPC) have been studied using a sample temperature control system.