High Pressure Capillary Measurements

Users MUST consult beamline staff at proposal stage if they wish to do high pressure measurements, failure to do so will have the proposal marked infeasible.

It is mandatory that thick wall (0.02-0.05 mm) quartz capillaries are used for experiments where internal capillary pressures above 5 bar are expected. For experiments requiring pressures: 5-10 bar, quartz capillaries with a wall thickness of 0.02 mm are required. For experiments requiring pressures: 10-20 bar, quartz capillaries with a wall thickness of 0.05 mm are required. These capillaries can be specially ordered from Hilgenberg. 

For all high pressure, capillary experiments using either the Norby or flow cell, the maximum pressure allowed is 2 MPa (20 bar). Higher pressures are possible by prior agreement with beamline staff at proposal stage, however sapphire capillaries will be required.

It is mandatory that thick walled quartz capillaries are used for all high-pressure capillary experiments, especially for those that require heating. Pressures of 5 – 10 bar require capillaries with a wall thickness of at least 0.02 mm. 10 – 20 bar experiments require capillaries with a wall thickness of at least 0.05 mm. These can be specially ordered from Hilgenberg.    

Users must state in their EA form, agree to and follow the safety procedure below:

Please note that for any high-pressure gas experiments above 5 bar with inert gases (at any pressure with flammable gases), there must always be 2 persons present at the beamline to monitor the capillary and ensure that breakages are detected as soon as they occur.