Small-angle neutron scattering in materials science: Recent practical applications

Modern materials science and engineering relies increasingly on detailed knowledge of the structure and interactions in “soft” and “hard” materials, but there have been surprisingly few microscopic techniques for probing the structures of bulk samples of these substances. Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) was first recognized in Europe as a major technique for this purpose and, over the past several decades, has been a growth area in both academic and industrial materials research to provide structural information on length scales $\sim 10–1000\mathrm{\AA }$ (or $1–100\mathrm{nm}$ ). The technique of ultrahigh resolution small-angle neutron scattering (USANS) raises the upper resolution limit for structural studies by more than two orders of magnitude and (up to $\sim 30\mu \mathrm{m}$ ) and hence overlaps with light scattering and microscopy. This review illustrates the ongoing vitality of SANS and USANS in materials research via a range of current practical applications from both soft and hard matter nanostructured systems.