New Material Exploration to Enhance Neutron Intensity below Cold Neutrons: Nanosized Graphene Flower Aggregation

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 Dec 23;13(1):76. doi: 10.3390/nano13010076.

Abstract

It is proposed that nanosized graphene aggregation could facilitate coherent neutron scattering under particle size conditions similar to nanodiamonds to enhance neutron intensity below cold neutrons. Using the RIKEN accelerator-driven compact neutron source and iMATERIA at J-PARC, we performed neutron measurement experiments, total neutron cross-section and small-angle neutron scattering on nanosized graphene aggregation. For the first time, the measured data revealed that nanosized graphene aggregation increased the total neutron cross-sections and small-angle scattering in the cold neutron energy region. This is most likely due to coherent scattering, resulting in higher neutron intensities, similar to nanodiamonds.

Keywords: below cold neutrons; graphene aggregation; nanosized material; neutron reflector; neutron source.