The result of SAXS is a reflection of two-phase with different electron density. In our paper, the CL-20 powders are immersed in GPL107 with a approximately equal electron density with CL-20 crystals, so the SAXS reflects the nano-scale pores inside CL-20 powders. Thereby, the increase of strength in SAXS curve reflects the increase in number of internal nano-scale pores. According to the principle of SAXS, the scale of defects is correlated with the q range, so the growth into larger defects will appear in other q range. X-ray microtomography is usually used to confirm the voids in micron-scale but this paper focuses on nano-scale voids.
7. Could there be any other explanation rather than increase in number of internal nano-scale pores? Could the increase be due to larger defects rather than an increase in the number of defects? If so, how do you prove this? Could you use X-ray microtomography on your samples?