How to Flow Ultrathin Water Layers - A Liquid Flatjet for X-Ray Spectroscopy

Liquid flatjet system, showing the two nozzles from which two impinging single jets form a  liquid water sheet with a thickness of 1 - 2 μm.

Liquid flatjet system, showing the two nozzles from which two impinging single jets form a liquid water sheet with a thickness of 1 - 2 μm. © MBI

A collaboration between scientists from the Max Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy (MBI), the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPIDS) have now demonstrated the successful implementation of a liquid flatjet with a thickness in the μm range, allowing for XAS transmission measurements in the soft-x-ray regime. This paves the way for novel steady-state and time-resolved experiments.

A collaboration between scientists from the Max Born Institute for Nonlinear Optics and Short Pulse Spectroscopy (MBI), the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPIDS) have now demonstrated the successful implementation of a liquid flatjet with a thickness in the μm range, allowing for XAS transmission measurements in the soft-x-ray regime. This paves the way for novel steady-state and time-resolved experiments.

Here a phenomenon well known in the field of fluid dynamics has been applied: by obliquely colliding two identical laminar jets, the liquid expands radially, generating a sheet in the form of a leaf, bounded by a thicker rim, orthogonal to the plane of the impinging jets.

The novel aspect here is that a liquid water flatjet has been demonstrated with thicknesses in the few micrometer range, stable for tens to hundreds of minutes, fully operational under vacuum conditions (‹10-3mbar). For the first time, soft x-ray absorption spectra of a liquid sample could be measured in transmission without any membrane. The x-ray measurements were performed at the soft x-ray synchrotron facility BESSYII of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin. This technological breakthrough opens up new frontiers in steady-state and time-resolved soft-x-ray spectroscopy of solution phase systems.

Read the full text at MBI.
   
Original publication: Structural Dynamics 2, 054301 (2015): A liquid flatjet system for solution phase soft-x-ray spectroscopy
Maria Ekimova, Wilson Quevedo, Manfred Faubel, Philippe Wernet, Erik T.J. Nibbering

Max-Born-Institut/red.

  • Copy link

You might also be interested in

  • Lithium-sulphur pouch cells investigated at BESSY II
    Science Highlight
    08.01.2025
    Lithium-sulphur pouch cells investigated at BESSY II
    A team from HZB and the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology (IWS) in Dresden has gained new insights into lithium-sulphur pouch cells at the BAMline of BESSY II. Supplemented by analyses in the HZB imaging laboratory and further measurements, a new picture emerges of processes that limit the performance and lifespan of this industrially relevant battery type. The study has been published in the prestigious journal Advanced Energy Materials.
  • Largest magnetic anisotropy of a molecule measured at BESSY II
    Science Highlight
    21.12.2024
    Largest magnetic anisotropy of a molecule measured at BESSY II
    At the Berlin synchrotron radiation source BESSY II, the largest magnetic anisotropy of a single molecule ever measured experimentally has been determined. The larger this anisotropy is, the better a molecule is suited as a molecular nanomagnet. Such nanomagnets have a wide range of potential applications, for example, in energy-efficient data storage. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Kohlenforschung (MPI KOFO), the Joint Lab EPR4Energy of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion (MPI CEC) and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin were involved in the study.
  • Ernst Eckhard Koch Prize and Synchrotron Radiation Innovation Award
    News
    13.12.2024
    Ernst Eckhard Koch Prize and Synchrotron Radiation Innovation Award
    This year, the Friends of Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (Freundeskreis des HZB e. V.) awarded the Ernst Eckhard Koch Prize to Dr. Dieter Skroblin of the Technische Universität Berlin for his outstanding doctoral thesis. The European Innovation Award Synchrotron Radiation went to Dr. Manfred Faubel from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen and Dr. Bernd Winter from the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin. The award ceremony took place at this year's HZB user meeting.