Emma Barney, STFC
Determining the structure of a glass is difficult and very often it is impossible to make much progress when just one technique is used to study a material. However, by bringing a range of different structural probes to bear on the problem, interesting results can be obtained and combined to give important insights into the structure of any glass.
This talk will begin by discussing neutron diffraction and its strengths, before highlighting the limitations in the technique that can prevent detailed structural information being extracted. The benefits of introducing other techniques, from X-ray diffraction and EXAFS to NMR and even the humble density measurement, will then be examined in a series of practical examples which demonstrate the power of combining different techniques to unravel some of the knotty problems in understanding glass structure.