Optimizing Microfluidic Flow Cell Geometry for In-Situ Resonant Soft X-ray Characterization of Molecular Nanostructures

IF 5.4 2区 工程技术 Q1 BIOCHEMICAL RESEARCH METHODS
Lab on a Chip Pub Date : 2025-09-16 DOI:10.1039/d5lc00765h
Devin Grabner, Terry McAfee, Cheng Wang, Matthew Marcus, Brian Collins
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Abstract

Liquid-phase resonant soft X-ray scattering (LP-RSoXS) is an emerging label-free technique to probe chemically resolved nanostructures of molecular or hybrid materials in liquid environments. Still, quantitative analysis is hindered by the pressure-induced deformation of thin silicon nitride (SiN) membranes used as windows in microfluidic flow cells, which attenuates the signal in nonlinear ways, making experimental optimization difficult. Here, we directly characterize this deformation under experimental conditions for a variety of cell configurations. We use this to develop a predictive model that combines transmission effects of SiN bowing, incident X-ray beam profiles, and material-dependent resonant scattering cross sections to simulate the effective scattering intensity at the detector across the carbon K-edge. Maps of the total signal across the flow cell window reveal that increasing the window width and polymer concentration shifts the anisotropic intensity distributions from the center toward the edges of the window. It was determined that an optimal SiN thickness of 50 nm, with a window aperture of 104 µm, maximizes the total signal for typical solute concentrations and energies across the carbon K-edge. Our results overturn the assumption that corner regions dominate the scattering signal, offering explicit design guidelines for maximizing LP-RSoXS signals and significantly advancing the quantitative application of this technique to the characterization of molecular and hybrid nanostructured materials in liquids.
优化微流体流动池几何结构用于分子纳米结构的原位共振软x射线表征
液相共振软x射线散射(LP-RSoXS)是一种新兴的无标记技术,用于探测液体环境中分子或杂化材料的化学分解纳米结构。然而,作为微流体流动电池窗口的薄氮化硅(SiN)膜的压力引起的变形阻碍了定量分析,这种变形以非线性方式衰减信号,使实验优化变得困难。在这里,我们直接表征这种变形在实验条件下的各种细胞配置。我们利用这一点开发了一个预测模型,该模型结合了SiN弯曲的传输效应、入射x射线束剖面和材料相关的共振散射截面,以模拟探测器穿过碳k边的有效散射强度。通过流动池窗口的总信号图显示,增加窗口宽度和聚合物浓度会使各向异性强度分布从窗口中心向窗口边缘移动。结果表明,最佳的SiN厚度为50 nm,窗口孔径为104µm,可以最大化碳k边典型溶质浓度和能量的总信号。我们的研究结果推翻了角区主导散射信号的假设,为最大化LP-RSoXS信号提供了明确的设计指导,并显著推进了该技术在液体中分子和混合纳米结构材料表征中的定量应用。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
Lab on a Chip
Lab on a Chip 工程技术-化学综合
CiteScore
11.10
自引率
8.20%
发文量
434
审稿时长
2.6 months
期刊介绍: Lab on a Chip is the premiere journal that publishes cutting-edge research in the field of miniaturization. By their very nature, microfluidic/nanofluidic/miniaturized systems are at the intersection of disciplines, spanning fundamental research to high-end application, which is reflected by the broad readership of the journal. Lab on a Chip publishes two types of papers on original research: full-length research papers and communications. Papers should demonstrate innovations, which can come from technical advancements or applications addressing pressing needs in globally important areas. The journal also publishes Comments, Reviews, and Perspectives.
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