National Centre for Electron Spectroscopy and Surface Analysis granted EPSRC funds to upgrade world-class facility for X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
Based at CCLRC Daresbury Laboratory, the National Centre for Electron Spectroscopy and Surface Analysis (NCESS) has been awarded a four year EPSRC Grant to fund its pioneering materials research facility.
The grant will allow the Scienta ESCA 300 spectrometer for X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to be upgraded and the number of days funded for user research programmes to be increased by 60%.
Bringing together industry and the academic community, NCESS houses collaborative research programmes for targeted research areas ranging from studies of polymers and composites through to ceramics, semiconductors, metals and novel materials.
The centre offers repayment services to industry and has an EPSRC user programme, which provides and supports access to its facilities to help academic groups with their own research programmes.
The funding boosts the role of the Scienta ESCA 300 spectrometer as a unique, central resource for the UK and provides an unparalleled world-class facility for photoelectron spectroscopy incorporating a range of photon energies not attainable with any commercially available system.
It directly benefits UK research groups working in metal physics and metallurgy, semiconductors, polymers, electronic devices and displays, oxides, bioscience and biosensors, glasses, CVD materials, fibres, environmental science, tribology, corrosion protection and nanostructured materials.
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is widely used for the surface chemical analysis of materials.
The Scienta ESCA300 spectrometer combines high intensity with high resolution and is used for studying elemental species in the top 200 angstroms of a surface.
Studies of structure, bonding, reactivity and surface dynamics can be carried out under conditions close to those occurring during material use or processing.
