This Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) beamline is being designed to complement I22, Diamond’s existing undulator SAXS beamline. It will cover all the major disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics, delivering structural and dynamic information in nanoscience, mesoscopic architectures, supramolecular structures, and nucleation/growth of crystals. SAXS is also proving important in archaeological, environmental, and conservation sciences, further indicating its ability to span wide ranging scientific disciplines. The increased need for SAXS in biological sciences follows the recognition that many proteins are not amenable to crystallisation. They may, however, be characterised in part by SAXS where the molecular envelope can be used to constrain model building from NMR and MX data. Furthermore, transient structures and structures with inherent flexibility are more amenable to SAXS experiments than MX or NMR.

HATSAXS is designed to operate between 6-23keV, covering the length scale range 1-500nm. The design will deliver a facility of the highest possible reliability and accuracy for samples that require a standardised approach such as highly automated throughput methods, and industrial and commercial applications. Many of the experiments using this technique do not require the brilliance or intensity of radiation that are provided by insertion devices on Diamond. This beamline will be built on a bending magnet source, supplying approx 10¹¹ph/s to the sample.

The end station will accommodate all of the standard SAXS sample environments already available at Diamond, including Linkam Capillary Heater and Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC), Stop flow Cell, Rheometer, High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), and Pressure Jump cell, together with the latest developments in automation for liquid, gel and solid samples.

As part of the automation for this beamline a BIOSAXS robot, designed by the EMBL in Grenoble, will be available.

B21 Contacts