An advanced light scattering apparatus for investigating soft matter onboard the International Space Station
Colloidal solids (COLIS) is a state-of-the-art light scattering setup developed for experiments onboard the International Space Station (ISS). COLIS allows for probing the structure and dynamics of soft matter systems on a wide range of length scales, from a few nm to tens of microns, and on time scales from 100 ns to tens of hours. In addition to conventional static and dynamic light scattering, COLIS includes depolarized dynamic light scattering, a small-angle camera, photon correlation imaging, and optical manipulation of thermosensitive samples through an auxiliary near-infrared laser beam, thereby providing a unique platform for probing soft matter systems. We demonstrate COLIS through ground tests on standard Brownian suspensions, and on protein, colloidal glasses, and gel systems similar to those to be used in future ISS experiments.
Authors
- Dominique Maes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9179-3186)
- James F. Lutsko (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9899-8435)
- Stefano Buzzaccaro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7394-5262)
- Erik Leussink
- Quentin Galand (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5922-8585)
- Juliette S. Behra (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4809-4822)
- Luca Cipelletti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2956-7580)
- Roberto Piazza (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7398-0335)
- Alessandro Martinelli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8055-8850)
- Yadvender Singh Dhillon
- Niel Segers
Institutions
- Université Libre de Bruxelles (BE)
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel (BE)
- Institut Universitaire de France (FR)
- Université de Montpellier (FR)
- Chimie Moléculaire, Macromoléculaire, Matériaux (FR)
- Renfe Operadora (Spain) (ES)
- Centre d’Etudes Politiques Et sociaLes (FR)
- Laboratoire Charles Coulomb (FR)
- VIB-VUB Center for Structural Biology (BE)
- Politecnico di Milano (IT)
- Macquarie University (AU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj Microgravity
- Published
- 2024-12-19
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41526-024-00455-8
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Material Dynamics and Properties
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.23
Funders
- European Space Agency
- Belgian Federal Science Policy Office
- Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales
- Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca
- Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
- Institut Universitaire de France