Investigation of the mechanical work during ultrasonic fatigue loading using pulsed time-resolved X-ray diffraction.

In the energy production and transportation industries, numerous metallic structures may be subjected to at least several billions of cycles, i.e. loaded in the very high cycle fatigue domain (VHCF). Therefore, to design structures in the VHCF domain, a reliable methodology is necessary. One useful quantity to characterize plastic activity at the microscopic scale and fatigue damage evolution is the mechanical work supplied to a material. However, the estimation of this mechanical work in a metal during ultrasonic fatigue tests remains challenging. This paper aims to present an innovative methodology to quantify this. An experimental procedure was developed to estimate the mechanical work from stress and total strain evolution measurements during one loading cycle with a time accuracy of about 50 ns. This was achieved by conducting time-resolved X-ray diffraction coupled to strain gauge measurements at a synchrotron facility working in pulsed mode (single-bunch mode).

XFEL Microcrystallography of Self-Assembling Silver n-Alkanethiolates.

New synthetic hybrid materials and their increasing complexity have placed growing demands on crystal growth for single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Unfortunately, not all chemical systems are conducive to the isolation of single crystals for traditional characterization. Here, small-molecule serial femtosecond crystallography (smSFX) at atomic resolution (0.833 Å) is employed to characterize microcrystalline silver n-alkanethiolates with various alkyl chain lengths at X-ray free electron laser facilities, resolving long-standing controversies regarding the atomic connectivity and odd-even effects of layer stacking. smSFX provides high-quality crystal structures directly from the powder of the true unknowns, a capability that is particularly useful for systems having notoriously small or defective crystals. We present crystal structures of silver n-butanethiolate (C4), silver n-hexanethiolate (C6), and silver n-nonanethiolate (C9). We show that an odd-even effect originates from the orientation of the terminal methyl group and its role in packing efficiency. We also propose a secondary odd-even effect involving multiple mosaic blocks in the crystals containing even-numbered chains, identified by selected-area electron diffraction measurements. We conclude with a discussion of the merits of the synthetic preparation for the preparation of microdiffraction specimens and compare the long-range order in these crystals to that of self-assembled monolayers.

Synthesis and structure of two novel trans-platinum complexes.

Here for the first time the synthesis and characterization of two new trans-platinum complexes, trans-[PtCl2{HN=C(OH)C6H5}2] (compound 1) and trans-[PtCl4(NH3){HN=C(OH)tBu}] (compound 2) [with tBu = C(CH3)3] are described. The structures have been characterized using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and X-ray single-crystal diffraction. In compound 1 the platinum cation, at the inversion center, is in the expected square-planar coordination geometry. It is coordinated to two chloride anions, trans to each other, and two nitrogen atoms from the benzamide ligands. The van der Waals interactions between the molecules produce extended two-dimensional layers that are linked into a three-dimensional structure through π...π intermolecular interactions. In compound 2 the platinum cation is octahedrally coordinated by four chloride anions and two nitrogen atoms from the pivalamide and ammine ligands, in trans configuration. The molecular packing is governed by intermolecular hydrogen bonds and van der Waals interactions.