Enhancing Interface Sensitivity of Energy Materials by Resonant X-Ray Scattering

The advent of novel mesoscale materials requires the constant concomitant progress in the characterization techniques used to address the new challenges and questions inherent to these materials. In this presentation, we reveal a powerful, yet simple, patterning approach for interface characterization that takes advantage of the physical processes intrinsic to resonant X-ray scattering and dramatically enhances the interface signal in order to enable data collection on millisecond timescales. Unlike standard microscopic techniques, this highly sensitive spatio-chemical information can be obtained over a statistically-significant area and doesn't require a highly focused beam whose flux can often be deleterious to the sample. We demonstrate its ability to selectively probe the interfacial regions of inorganic materials used throughout the fields of energy conversion and storage with sub-nm 3D precision. In addition, we leverage newly-developed in-situ/operando capabilities for gas/liquid flow and electrical biasing compatible with most "soft" and "tender" X-ray beamlines to show how this approach can be a powerful interrogation tool to monitor reactions near interfaces.