Contact: Binhua Lin, +1 630.252.0463, lin@cars.uchicago.edu

The liquid surface/interface station at ChemMatCARS is dedicated to the studies of liquid surface/interfacial phenomena and properties using surface x-ray scattering techniques. The liquid surface scattering instrument, which was commissioned successfully in the summer of 2002, enables the investigation of a wide variety of liquid systems that include the following:

• Surfaces of complex fluids composed of polymers, lipids, liquid crystals, etc.
• Interfaces between two immiscible liquids
• Liquid metal-X interfaces
• Superfluid helium surfaces
• Monolayers of amphiphilic phospholipid surfactants, protein-lipid mixtures, functional molecules, polymeric and biological macromolecules at the liquid-vapor or liquid-liquid interface

The high brilliance and wide x-ray energy range (5-30 keV) offered in this third generation insertion device beamline allows experimental measurements to probe surface/interfacial structure with much higher molecular resolution than is possible at a second generation synchrotron source.