Updated 2007-02-12

Fourth Scandinavian Workshop on Scattering from Soft Matter

MAX-lab, Lund 1-2 February 2007

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The Fourth Scandinavian Workshop on Scattering on Soft Matter was held at MAX-lab in Lund and it covered a wide range of topics associated with small-angle scattering studies of proteins, polymers, and small molecules as well as instrumental matters. Some 60 participants from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Germany, and Portugal attended this meeting organized by Yngve Cerenius and co-workers of MAX-lab, Lund University. The program was composed of lectures from different areas of small-angle scattering, including small-angle X-ray scattering and small-angle neutron scattering as well as light scattering and neutron reflectivity. Both materials and instrumental and theoretical aspects were well represented and gave a cross section of underlying activities in the Scandinavian area and beyond. The same theme was reflected in the highly popular poster session. Moreover, a few participants used an opportunity to measure their samples at the newly introduced beamline, I711 of MAX-lab.


The meeting was opened by Yngve Cerenius followed by Prof. Nils Mårtensson, the director of MAX-lab, who introduced the plan for a new Swedish synchrotron, the MAX IV project. The first day of the meeting was then devoted to the wide variety of methods and techniques specific to the scattering studies of soft matter. The importance of such studies for better understanding of soft matter physics was illustrated by excellent talks by Prof. Jon Otto Fossum of Trondheim and Prof. Kell Mortensen of Risø in the opening session. The subsequent presentations by Christiano Oliveira and Petra Bäverbäck of the Department of Chemistry, Aarhus University, described studies of protein and surfactant systems, using a variety of scattering and modeling approaches including neutron and light scattering.
The final session of the day included talks on the large scale instrumental efforts between GKSS Research Centre and Petra III as presented by Vasil Garamus of Geesthacht, modeling and measuring all aspects of soft wood structure (Prof. Ritva Serimaa of Helsinki) and on the current status of I711 SAXS beamline at MAX-lab (Yngve Cerenius).

Theoretical and modeling aspects of soft matter and polymers were the subject of the lectures on first session of the second day of the meeting. First, an introduction to the particle wall interactions studied by DLS applying evanescent wave techniques, was presented by Peter Holmqvist of Forschungzentrum Jülich and set the scene for a later talks on the modeling and experiments of polymer materials. An excellent work of functional PNIPAM polymer studied by mean field theory and neutron reflectivity was described by Prof. Per Linse of Lund University, followed by a presentation of by Prof. Carsten Svaneborg of the University of Aarhus of a large number of simulations and experiments of polymer networks. An overview of the impact cross links have on the properties of block copolymers, presented by Fenxiao Guo, illustrated the role scattering studies plays in the design of mesoporous materials.

The last session of the meeting included talks on the results utilizing data from I711 beamline. Different approaches used to probe phase behavior and kinetics of surfactants and enzymes using in situ SAXS measurements was discussed by Justas Barauskas, Lund University. In the same session, Prof. Bente Vestergaard of the University of Copenhagen once more emphasized the importance of small-angle scattering in the structural studies of proteins. Katrine Toft from the same group presented a large set of their ambitious program of total analysis and micro fluidistics utilizing small-angle scattering. Finally, Prof. Adrian Rennie of Uppsala University directed general discussion which gave the prospect of the efforts.

In general, the talks were focused on methods rather than the very details of underlying materials for the benefit of generic audience. The workshop attracted a high number of participants including some from outside Scandinavia, which shows that the meeting was seen relevant to the variety of activities from different research areas. The meeting gave also current and potential users of I711 a forum to change their ideas with the beamline staff.


The Fifth Scandinavian Workshop on the Scattering of Soft Matter will be hold in Trondheim, at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, a site introduced by Prof. Fossum.



Matti Knaapila & Yngve Cerenius