Success Story
bioXs – An x-ray view inside materials
Big science for your lab: Precision without compromise
Gain insights into wear and damage mechanisms at a level previously reserved exclusively for large-scale research facilities. Our high-end x-ray measurement station brings world-class analytical capabilities directly into your development process.
To explain macroscopic material properties and damage mechanisms in detail, a thorough understanding of the underlying processes at the microstructural level is essential. With the open X-ray measurement station bioXs (“Brilliant Intense Open X-ray Station”), AC²T now makes a powerful high-end research infrastructure accessible that enables comprehensive insights into materials and their microstructural evolution using advanced X-ray analytical methods. The unique combination of a multi-anode X-ray source with dedicated optics and a large-area high-end X-ray detector provides low-threshold access to laboratory-scale materials analyses that would normally require beamtime at large-scale research facilities such as synchrotrons (e.g. DESY, Hamburg).
The new X-ray laboratory was opened to the public in January 2026 as part of a one-day kick-off workshop attended by ~50 participants from research and industry.
Comprehensive materials characterization
At the centre, the open X-ray measurement station is primarily used to investigate material damage mechanisms in-situ. A particular field of application for the bioXs station are thin functional coatings, such as those used on highly wear-resistant cutting and forming tools. The quality of these coatings depends, e.g., on the density of lattice defects in the crystal structure and on residual stresses within the coating. Unfavourable manufacturing conditions can increase these effects and lead to coating delamination. In this context, bioXs is a valuable tool for optimizing manufacturing processes.
In-situ damage behaviour
The open design of bioXs allows the integration of user-specific experimental setups, enabling in-situ analyses of materials under tribological or other mechanical or chemical loads in specialized environments, such as high temperatures or controlled gas atmospheres. Thanks to the short measurement times, temporal evolutions of material changes can be resolved in great detail.
Impact and effects
With the open X-ray measurement station bioXs, a high-end research infrastructure for comprehensive characterization of material properties is now available at AC²T, enabling analyses that are typically only possible at synchrotron facilities.
Access to such facilities is usually granted through highly competitive selection procedures with lead times of at least six months. bioXs therefore represents an attractive alternative for researchers who would otherwise depend on synchrotron beamtime for their scientific work.
The open setup also enables in-situ experiments using custom-built test rigs (e.g. under gas atmospheres), supporting the targeted development of materials and coatings for future applications, such as technologies involving greenhouse-gas-neutral energy carriers like hydrogen and ammonia.
Projektcoordination (Story)
Dr. Josef Prost
Project Leader, Device responsibility bioXs
AC2T research GmbH
Partner
- TU Wien, X-Ray Center, Austria
- TU Wien, Institute of Chemical Technologies and Analytics, Austria
- TU Wien, Institute of Materials Science and Technology, Austria
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This success story was provided by the AC2T research GmbH and by the mentioned project partners for the purpose of being published. InTribology2 is a COMET Centre within the COMET – Competence Centers for Excellent Technologies Programme and funded by BMIMI, BMWET, and the provinces of Niederösterreich and Vorarlberg. The COMET Programme is managed by FFG. Further information on COMET: www.ffg.at/comet
