Determination of Anisotropic Features in Porous Materials by Small-Angle X-Ray-Scattering

Some synthetic and natural materials exhibit anisotropic features due to the way that they have been fabricated. Small-angle scattering techniques with x-rays or neutrons may be used to probe this anisotropy by observation of the azimuthal variation in scattering intensity from an oriented sample. Results will be presented for a series of materials, in either fibre or disk form, which give distinctive patterns corresponding to ordered or disordered structures with spatial characteristics in the 10-2000 Angstrom range. The possible extension of the method to other materials and further development of the technique is also considered.