Smart Combinatorial Research Equipment (SmartCoRE) for Automated Sample Analysis and Environmental Control on Synchroton Beamlines

Combinatorial research techniques have greatly accelerated the output of materials research laboratories especially in the area of polymers. This has greatly increased the potential for discovery of new and useful material properties, but unfortunately it can often swamp the capabilities of analysis labs to measure this ever-increasing stream of new samples. Synchrotron scattering analysis techniques are in especially high demand and short supply and often samples must be measured under a variety of environmental conditions (e.g. heat, electric or magnetic fields, light exposure, etc.). There is currently great need for a modular environment control chamber capable of being arrayed for automated analysis and economical enough to use in moderate quantities. We propose the design of a