High pressure cell for small- and wide-angle x-ray scattering

A compact high pressure cell and its control environment designed for smalland wide-angle x-ray scattering experiments under hydrostatic pressure up to 3000 bar and temperatures between 220 °C and 180 °C are described. With this system x-ray scattering experiments can be performed at constant pressure and temperature with a conventional laboratory x-ray source and it can be easily modified to carry out time resolved pressure jump studies at synchrotron radiation sources. The computer-aided pressure adjustment has a calibrated accuracy of 60.5%, and temperature is computer-controlled to a precision of 60.05 °C. The instrument has been designed to investigate systems of biological interest, especially lipid-water dispersions, but it is equally possible to measure highly viscous or solid samples. The performance is illustrated by a pressure dependent smalland wide-angle x-ray scattering study of a phospholipid-water dispersion at constant temperature. © 1997 American Institute of Physics. @S0034-6748~97!03312-1#