Which glue to choose? A neutron scattering study of various adhesive materials and their effect on background scattering

The background scattering from numerous frequently used sample adhesives has been investigated to determine the background contribution of these glues when used for inelastic neutron scattering measurements. Starting with a bare Cu sheet, different glues have been trialled, such as GE varnish, CYTOP solution, Teflon tape, Fomblin oil and two-component epoxy glue. Measurements were collected using the PELICAN cold-neutron time-of-flight spectrometer at ANSTO, which is capable of collecting data over a wide range of Q–ω space simultaneously. The results indicate that those glues containing hydrogen give much higher background signals, while those that do not contain hydrogen have a much smaller impact on the background signal. This was observed for both elastic and inelastic neutron scattering.