A doctoral student in textile creation "scrubber" discovers the techniques of neutron analysis at the ORNL

"These are new materials that combine the catalytic properties of enzymes with the flexibility of textiles," Yuan said.

When she began her doctoral studies, Yuan, who has a background in textile science, wanted to know more about the different properties of enzymes and polymers that could be used to improve the performance of biocatalytic textiles. So she started taking biochemistry classes.

This is how Flora Meilleur, a member of the NC State faculty, heard about neutron scattering for the first time by Yuan. Ms. Meilleur is also a structural biologist at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) of the US Department of Energy (DOE), which specializes in protein chemistry and neutron crystallography in the two neutron sources of the ORNL reactor, at namely the source of spallation neutrons (SNS) and the high flux isotope reactor HFIR).

SNS and HFIR are user facilities from DOE's Office of Science that annually attract more than 1,200 researchers to Oak Ridge to image and analyze materials and their properties using neutrons – electrically neutral particles that disperse from the atoms of a material, generating structural data often impossible to obtain with other techniques such as X-rays. The noninvasive nature of neutrons makes it an ideal tool for the study of biological materials, such as polymers to which Yuan is interested in his research.

In NC State, Yuan uses electron and X-ray techniques to study the structures and interactions of polymers and enzymatic proteins for her textiles, but these methods did not produce all the data she needed.

"The challenge of using electrons is that the materials I am looking for are of biological origin and that they do not have enough electrons to interact with the probe," he says. Yuan said. "But neutrons can fill that hole in the characterization."

A Ph.D. member of Yuan Committee, Best highlighted the potential of neutrons for her. Better shared articles on neutron scattering, but Yuan was still wondering about how the instruments work and how she would interpret and use the data.

"How do you transform neutron scattering data into desired information?" she asked.

Best has suggested to Yuan to visit the ORNL's Center for Structural Molecular Biology (CSMB) and facilities for neutron users to immersively initiate it to neutron science. CSMB operates a neutron scattering instrument called Bio-SAN, dedicated to biological samples at HFIR, and a bio-deuteration laboratory designed to prepare biological samples for neutron analysis.

"Meeting with expert scientists and visiting facilities is the best way for a graduate student to become familiar with the new techniques and see how they can be applied in their field of research," said Ms. Meilleur. "Yue's opportunity to spend a week at ORNL has been a hands-on and invaluable learning experience."

Yuan has applied for a Wilson College of Textiles Professional Development Scholarship through the Ellen Rohde Leadership Initiative, which aims to help college women take leadership training. Through this initiative, Yue received funding for a week-long trip to Oak Ridge.

"At first I was hesitant because I had limited knowledge of neutrons, but after a visit, it is clear that what is possible," Yuan said. "I spoke to experts in enzymes, biomolecules and polymers and I received positive feedback on my work."

During his visit, Yuan visited the facilities of the neutron users and met with ORNL scientists, including Hugh O'Neill, director of the CSMB; Dean Myles, researcher in instruments for the IMAGINE diffractometer for HFIR biochemistry; Urban Volker, researcher in instruments for Bio-SANS; Hassina Bilheux, researcher in computer instruments for the HFIR neutron imaging center; Laura Stingaciu, scientist specializing in SNS neutron spin spectrometer instruments; John Ankner, research scientist in instruments for the liquid reflectometer at SNS; Kevin Weiss, a chemist of the CSMB protein; Kunlun Hong, Materials scientist at the Center for Nanomaterial Sciences; and Tomonori Saito, a synthetic polymer chemist and expert in CO2 separation.

"I have visited different beamlines and discussed with experts the potential of different instruments for my research.What I found in Oak Ridge, these are world class instruments," Yuan said.

During his interviews with ORNL neutron scientists, Yuan discussed techniques such as reflectometry to study surfaces and interfaces and spectroscopy to measure atomic motion and magnetism.

"I found scientists ready to help," she said. "I have learned to do experiments and what kinds of challenges I might be facing."

Yuan and Meilleur met daily to discuss information that Yuan had found useful for his research on biocatalytic textiles.

"I was coming back to Dr. Best at the end of each day to share his comments, so we kept updating my schedule for the next day," Yuan said.

Among Yuan's goals for her week at ORNL, she sought advice on drafting a beam time proposal at SNS and HFIR in order to apply her practical knowledge of neutrons to data collection and the progress of her research.

"Now, I know that there are neutron instruments that can be linked to my research and that will work with electron microscopy so that I can study the dynamics of polymers," Yuan said.

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