Hi Don, No, they are supposed to be single-crystal quartz cut at an angle such that you get zero background. BB > On Apr 10, 2024, at 1:30 PM, Don Halterman <donjhalterman@gmail.com> wrote: > > Are those "fused quartz"? > > > On Wed, Apr 10, 2024, 12:51 Barry Bickmore via MSA-talk <msa-talk@minlists.org <mailto:msa-talk@minlists.org>> wrote: >> Thanks for all the advice and information from everyone. If anyone is interested, here is my first attempt (which I haven’t tried in the oven, yet). I have a mini-kiln in my lab that I can put a slow heat ramp on, but I can’t control the cooling ramp, so I’ll see how it goes and post a follow-up with the results. >> >> 1. I’m using quartz disks from MTI, which a couple of people recommended. The ones I bought <https://www.mtixtl.com/zero-SiO2-25D25C2.aspx> are 25 mm diameter and 2.5 mm thick. >> >> 2. I designed and 3D printed PETG plastic holders where I can easily pop the quartz disk in (and the sample surface is at the correct height), but the fit is snug enough that it doesn’t shift around when it is tilted. It’s also easy to pop the disk out with a fingernail. I’ve designed similar holders for random mounts, and they work just fine on the 6-sample changer in the Rigaku MiniFlex 600 diffractometer. >> >> 3. There are holes on the bottom of the holder so I could pop in tiny 3 mm diameter neodymium magnets and superglue them there. >> >> Let me know if anyone wants the STL or OpenSCAD files for the holders. Here are a few pictures. >> >> >> >> Barry >> >> >> >>> On Apr 3, 2024, at 4:30 PM, Barry Bickmore <bbickmore1970@gmail.com <mailto:bbickmore1970@gmail.com>> wrote: >>> >>> Hi everyone, >>> >>> I am doing some XRD work with oriented clay films that I put through various treatments. Sometimes it’s hard to do those without the clay film peeling, unless you reduce the thickness of the film, so I like to do them with zero background holders. The problem with the ones I have (which are made for a 6-sample changer on a Rigaku MiniFlex 600) is that they have the zero-BG material (a Si wafer) mounted in an aluminum holder using some kind of glue that I don’t think will survive heat treatments up to 500 °C. There are also a couple little magnets in the holder to keep it from falling off the stage when it tilts. Anyway, it cuts the prep time way down if you can just take the mounted clay and subject it to the next treatment I could get a big quartz crystal, cut it 6° off axis, and make some zero-BG wafers myself, but I’m wondering if heat treatment would crack the quartz. I can find glue that will withstand that kind of temperature, so that’s not a problem. Back in graduate school we used porous ceramic wafers that we suctioned a clay suspension onto, and these could be subjected to heat treatment, but I haven’t found any ceramic tiles that are both the right porosity and resistant to breakage. >>> >>> So, does anyone have any ideas or experience about this? Will quartz wafers withstand the temperature? (Maybe I could just ramp the temperature slowly?) Any insight or crazy ideas are welcome. >>> >>> Thanks! >>> >>> Barry Bickmore >>> Professor of Geological Sciences >>> Brigham Young University >>> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> MSA-talk mailing list -- msa-talk@minlists.org <mailto:msa-talk@minlists.org> >> To unsubscribe send an email to msa-talk-leave@minlists.org <mailto:msa-talk-leave@minlists.org> > <IMG_1764.jpeg><IMG_1765.jpeg><PastedGraphic-1.tiff><IMG_1764.jpeg><IMG_1764.jpeg><IMG_1764.jpeg>