At 08:38 AM 9/10/2004 +0200, you wrote:
Hello Andreas,
When I met Jim Cline at the Denver Conference he spoke about a fluid to drop into a (possibly backloaded) powder sample in order to make it solid. I will not put Jim's e-mail address on the Rietveld list but am quite sure he is subscribed - Jim, could you advise?
Me??? But I was having so much fun in lurk mode...
There exists a single component, moderate viscosity, low wetting angle epoxy designed and sold for quick fixes to leaky vacuum equipment. The stuff is supposed to seek into and fill cracks, then harden into a semi-flexible seal. I have found that a very small quantity of it can be used to stabilize compacts of powders as, due to the low wetting angle, it will fully infiltrate such a compact before hardening. I have not found that it has any impact on the measured background. However, in order to employ it for this, back loading, application, one would have to come up with a smooth surface to which the epoxy would not adhere. I would certainly try Teflon, but some experiments are in order.
Best regards,
Jim
<snip>
Ceramics Division
National Institute of Standards and Technology
100 Bureau Dr. stop 8520
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8523 USA
