Small-Angle Scattering in Porous Solids, an overview highlighting data analysis challenges

Countless technologies and chemical processes make use of nanoporous materials: heterogeneous catalysis, including electrochemical reactions in fuel-cell electrodes, adsorption separation processes, kinetically selective membrane processes, are but a few examples. Nanopores are also relevant to natural processes as diverse as the weathering of rocks and ion transport through biological membranes.[1] Small-angle scattering of x-rays (SAXS) or neutrons (SANS) is one of the few experimental methods currently available for the in situ analysis of phenomena in this type of materials at the mesoscopic scale.[e.g. 2,3] In this presentation, we briefly review some recent applications of small-angle scattering to the in situ analysis of phenomena inside mesoporous solids. A particular focus is put on the data analysis challenges, whereby the scattered intensity is converted to real-space structures with nanometer resolution