A software package for the calibration and processing of powder X-ray diffraction and small-angle X-ray scattering data is presented. It provides a multitude of data processing and visualization tools as well as a command-line scripting interface for on-the-fly processing and the incorporation of complex data treatment tasks. Customizable processing chains permit the execution of many data processing steps to convert a single image or a batch of raw twodimensional data into meaningful data and one-dimensional diffractograms. The processed data files contain the full data provenance of each process applied to the data. The calibration routines can run automatically even for high energies and also for large detector tilt angles. Some of the functionalities are highlighted by specific use cases.

The manufacture and properties of compound refractive lenses (CRLs) for hard X-rays with parabolic pro®le are described. These novel lenses can be used up to $60 keV. A typical focal length is 1 m. They have a geometrical aperture of 1 mm and are best adapted to undulator beams at synchrotron radiation sources. The transmission ranges from a few % in aluminium CRLs up to about 30% expected in beryllium CRLs. The gain (ratio of the intensity in the focal spot relative to the intensity behind a pinhole of equal size) is larger than 100 for aluminium and larger than 1000 for beryllium CRLs. Due to their parabolic pro®le they are free of spherical aberration and are genuine imaging devices. The theory for imaging an X-ray source and an object illuminated by it has been developed, including the effects of attenuation (photoabsorption and Compton scattering) and of the roughness at the lens surface. Excellent agreement between theory and experiment has been found. With aluminium CRLs a lateral resolution in imaging of 0.3 mm has been achieved and a resolution below 0.1 mm can be expected for beryllium CRLs. The main ®elds of application of the refractive X-ray lenses are (i) microanalysis with a beam in the micrometre range for diffraction,¯uorescence, absorption, scattering; (ii) imaging in absorption and phase contrast of opaque objects which cannot tolerate sample preparation; (iii) coherent X-ray scattering.

I12 is the Joint Engineering, Environmental and Processing (JEEP) beamline, constructed during Phase II of the Diamond Light Source. I12 is located on a short (5 m) straight section of the Diamond storage ring and uses a 4.2 T superconducting wiggler to provide polychromatic and monochromatic X-rays in the energy range 50-150 keV. The beam energy enables good penetration through large or dense samples, combined with a large beam size (1 mrad horizontally  0.3 mrad vertically). The beam characteristics permit the study of materials and processes inside environmental chambers without unacceptable attenuation of the beam and without the need to use sample sizes which are atypically small for the process under study. X-ray techniques available to users are radiography, tomography, energy-dispersive diffraction, monochromatic and white-beam two-dimensional diffraction/scattering and small-angle X-ray scattering. Since commencing operations in November 2009, I12 has established a broad user community in materials science and processing, chemical processing, biomedical engineering, civil engineering, environmental science, palaeontology and physics.

a Lithium-ion batteries are being used in increasingly demanding applications where safety and reliability are of utmost importance. Thermal runaway presents the greatest safety hazard, and needs to be fully understood in order to progress towards safer cell and battery designs. Here, we demonstrate the application of an internal short circuiting device for controlled, on-demand, initiation of thermal runaway. Through its use, the location and timing of thermal runaway initiation is pre-determined, allowing analysis of the nucleation and propagation of failure within 18 650 cells through the use of high-speed X-ray imaging at 2000 frames per second. The cause of unfavourable occurrences such as sidewall rupture, cell bursting, and cell-to-cell propagation within modules is elucidated, and steps towards improved safety of 18 650 cells and batteries are discussed. Broader contextFrom portable electronics to grid-scale storage, high energy density Li-ion batteries are ubiquitous in today's society. Such cells can and do fail, sometimes catastrophically, releasing large amounts of energy. To facilitate safer and more reliable cell designs, the importance of understanding failure mechanisms of Li-ion cells is widely recognised. Here, we demonstrate the application of a novel device that is capable of generating an internal short circuit within commercial cell designs, on-demand, and at a predetermined location. This enables us to test more effectively the ability of safety devices of cells and modules to withstand 'worst-case' failure scenarios. By combining the use of this device with high-speed X-ray imaging at 2000 frames per second, we characterise for the first time the initiation and propagation of thermal runaway from a known location within a Li-ion cell. The insights achieved in this study are expected to guide the design and development of safer and more reliable Li-ion cells.

We describe refractive x-ray lenses with a parabolic profile that are genuine imaging devices, similar to glass lenses for visible light. They open considerable possibilities in x-ray microscopy, tomography, microanalysis, and coherent scattering. Based on these lenses a microscope for hard x rays is described, that can operate in the range from 2 to 50 keV, allowing for magnifications up to 50. At present, it is possible to image an area of about 300 m in diameter with a resolving power of 0.3 m that can be increased to 0.1 m. This microscope is especially suited for opaque samples, up to 1 cm in thickness, which do not tolerate sample preparation, like many biological and soil specimens.