An orientation process to study nuclear membranes by small angle neutron scattering

Nuclear membranes are prepared by heavy ions irradiation of polymer foils which are subsequently etched by a chemical agent. This allows us to prepare parallel channels with very uniform diameter from a few nm to mum range. Due to their small dispersion these membranes are very suitable for filtration or functionalisation through grafting. Small angle neutron scattering (SANS). performed on the PAXE spectrometer in the Laboratoire Leon Brillouin, Saclay (LLB) and the DI I spectrometer in the Institut Laue Lange in. Grenoble (ILL), allows us to obtain overall information about the channels (albeit in the dual reciprocal space), The large neutron scattering length of hydrogen gives an excellent contrast which makes it possible to get significant spectra from single polymer foils (thickness 12 mum). In the present study we demonstrate that rocking the samples versus the incoming neutron beam allows us to get overall information about the 3D channel structure. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.