CONTACT & STAFF
Facility E-mail: sapucaia@lnls.br
Coordination: Aline R. Passos
Tel.: +55 19 3512 2332
E-mail: aline.passos@lnls.br
Click here for more information on this Facility team.
SAPUCAIA (Scattering APparatUs for Complex Applications and In-situ Assays) is a beamline dedicated to Small-Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) and Ultra-Small-Angle X-ray Scattering (USAXS) techniques. SAXS and USAXS are structural characterization techniques used to study morphological properties such as shape, size, distribution, and spatial organization of nano- and microstructured objects. In addition, they enable time-resolved kinetic studies with millisecond temporal resolution. These techniques are well established and widely applied across diverse research fields, including physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering.
Facility E-mail: sapucaia@lnls.br
Coordination: Aline R. Passos
Tel.: +55 19 3512 2332
E-mail: aline.passos@lnls.br
Click here for more information on this Facility team.
SAPUCAIA (Scattering APparatUs for Complex Applications and In-situ Assays) is a beamline dedicated to Small-Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) and Ultra-Small-Angle X-ray Scattering (USAXS) techniques. SAXS and USAXS are structural characterization techniques used to investigate morphological properties such as shape, size, distribution, and spatial organization of nano- and microstructured objects. In addition, they enable time-resolved kinetic studies with millisecond temporal resolution. These techniques are well established and applied across diverse research fields, including physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering. The beamline offers users the possibility to investigate relevant problems in life sciences, with biological and medical applications, structural biology, covering proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, and macromolecules in general, as well as multiple topics in materials science, such as nanotechnology, polymers, and environmental sciences.
The SAPUCAIA beamline operates in a high-throughput regime, enabling rapid sample exchange. For this purpose, it is equipped with a robotic sample changer integrated with beamline control and data acquisition systems, allowing SAXS and USAXS experiments with high operational efficiency. The beamline is located in a high-beta section, ensuring low beam divergence. The source is a KYMA undulator, the beam is focused by a toroidal mirror, and the energy is defined by a double-crystal monochromator (DCM). The beamline is commissioned for a standard operating energy of 8 keV. The PIMEGA 540D detector is installed inside a vacuum chamber 15 meters long and 2 meters in diameter, allowing a sample-to-detector distance ranging from 1 m to 10.5 m and covering a wide q-range. These characteristics enable the study of particles with dimensions ranging from a few nanometers up to micrometers, making SAPUCAIA an extremely versatile tool for researchers from diverse scientific areas.
The SAPUCAIA beamline was designed to provide low parasitic scattering, low beam divergence, and high optical component stability. The experimental station is equipped with a robotic liquid sample changer (for samples with water-like viscosity) and a dedicated sample holder for solid samples (powders, films, fibers). The experimental setup for liquid samples includes temperature control from 10 to 50 °C. In situ and time-resolved experiments can be performed with temporal resolution down to 1 ms using TR-SAXS (Time-Resolved Small-Angle X-ray Scattering).
SAPUCAIA Beamline representation
| Elements | Type | Position [m] | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| SOURCE | Undulator | 0 | APU22 Kyma undulator, high beta straight section |
| S1 | White slit | 27 | Slit located at the entrance of the optical hutch |
| DCM | Monochromator | 29 | Two-crystals vertical-bounced monochromator (Si 111 or Si 311) |
| S2 | Mono slits | 30 | Beam defining slits |
| M1 | Mirror | 31 | Horizontal-bounced Rh toroidal mirror (Meridional radius: 97 mm; Sagittal radius: 7800 m) |
| S3 | Defining slits | 32 | Beam defined slits |
| S4 | Sample slits | 47.5 | Scatterless slits placed in front of sample position |
| SH | Sample-holder | 47.8 | Sample-holder position |
| TN | Tunnel | 48 — 62 | Vacuum chamber with detector support |
| DET | Detector | 48.5 — 58.5 | PiMega 540D, Medipix3 |
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Energy range (keV) | 6 — 20 keV |
| Photon flux (photons/s/100mA) |
2 x 1012 ph/s @ 8 keV |
| Beam size at sample | ~ 200 µm2 |
| Sample-to-detector distance | 1 – 10.5 m |
| q-range | 0.004 – 5.2 nm-1 |
Small-Angle and Ultra-Small-Angle X-ray Scattering techniques are widely used for the characterization of nanomaterials. Based on X-ray scattering at very small angles, these techniques allow the determination of size, shape, and internal structure of nanostructures, properties that are critical to material performance. The accessible length scales range from a few nanometers to several hundreds of nanometers. This broad size coverage makes SAXS particularly suitable for the study of hierarchical materials with multiple structural levels. In addition to static measurements, SAXS and USAXS can be performed under controlled environmental conditions, including temperature variation, and with high temporal resolution, enabling in situ and operando monitoring of structural dynamics. This allows direct correlations to be established between nanoscale organization and the functional behavior of materials.
To understand why a given protein or complex exhibits a specific biological function, studying its structure is essential. SAXS allows users to obtain important information on proteins, including size, mass, folding state, and shape in solution under a wide range of conditions. At SAPUCAIA, users benefit from low noise due to high flux and low parasitic scattering, enabling not only measurements of highly diluted samples but also time-resolved experiments to follow dynamic processes on the millisecond timescale.
Nanoparticles for substance encapsulation are of particular interest across different scientific fields, ranging from personalized medicine to the food and agricultural industries. They are also used for the removal of environmental contaminants such as heavy metals and both organic and inorganic pollutants. At SAPUCAIA, users can perform experiments to monitor nanoparticle formation and stability. It is also possible to investigate the effects of drug or agricultural input encapsulation or release on nanoparticle structure, as well as phase transitions on shorter timescales and particles of different sizes. These experiments enable not only the extraction of local structural information but also the characterization of nanoparticle size distributions.
Polymer research spans many areas and supports a wide range of applications, from cosmetics to fuels. Polymeric samples can greatly benefit from the structural information provided by SAXS. At SAPUCAIA, users can take advantage of beamline features such as temporal resolution to monitor size and structure during the formation of rapidly polymerizing compounds and crosslinking processes, while USAXS enables the study of large polymer complexes and phase transitions.
Monitoring catalytic processes is of great interest across a wide range of fields, from fundamental biological processes to industrial applications. At the SAPUCAIA beamline, users can study catalysis in both liquid and solid media on short timescales. This enables in situ investigation of catalytic processes under a variety of conditions and for different catalysts.
SAXS is widely used in biomedicine for the structural characterization of biological systems in solution under near-physiological conditions. At SAPUCAIA, the technique allows determination of the size, shape, and organization of biomolecules such as proteins, nucleic acids, macromolecular complexes, viruses, and virus-like particles, without the need for crystallization.