Rotating Cell Multi-Positional Block

The SANS rotating cells tumble a sealed sample cell with the center of the rotation at the center of the sample. This tumbling motion prevents settling of precipitates that form over the time-scale of the SANS measurement. A set of four rotating cells are currently on long-term loan from Uppsala University for use at all SANS beamlines. A set of six more, purchased by NIST, are on order from the manufacturer. The BT5 USANS instrument has space enough for 4 cells and up to 6 cells can be used on traditional SANS instruments.

Two styles of sample drums have been used. The drum pictured holds circular and rectanglar Hellma© cells, and the second holds any of the standard demountable cells.

Two temperature control schemes have been used. Temperature control in the range 10°C below ambient to about +40°C has been implemented using air flow and a Peltier device¹. Temperature control in the range of ambient to 60°C has been implemented using halogen heat lamps².

1. "A holder to rotate sample cells to avoid sedimentation in small-angle neutron scattering and ultra small-angle neutron scattering experiments," Anders Olsson, et al. 2013, Meas. Sci. Technol. 24 105901
2. "Dynamic infrared sample controlled (DISCO) temperature for the tumbler cells for ultra small angle neutron scattering (USANS)," Juscelino Leao, et al. 2017, J. Neutron Research 19 (1-2) 23-26