Amorphous conductor transparent to XRD I want to conduct in-situ XRD of a cathode in my battery using this coin cell with a kapton viewing window. I assume this cell configuration is the best I can find for my purpose, and that I can't easily make a better cell. However, the viewing window isn't super helpful if I still need to use a stainless steel current collector, as I have previously. 

Thus it seems I have two options:


Make a donut-shaped anode and separator, and XRD through the hole in the donut to hit the cathode. However, I worry that the cathode may not fully lithiate in the center, because it is not as close to in contact with my anode.   
Find a current collector which is transparent to XRD. Does anyone have a suggestion for such a current collector?
You might have success with amorphous carbon sheets[1]. It's not cheap, but it's effective. It's the material used in the windows of the AMPIX cell[2] developed at Argonne. It does react at low potentials, though, so might not work for anode studies.

Have you considered aluminum? It's crystalline, but cubic so there aren't very many peaks to worry about.

This paper[3] might be helpful as you work on your experiments. You're right to think that not having a current collector for part of the electrode would affect the degree of lithiation; it's actually worse than that. Those kapton window cells are convenient, but always put an asterisk next to your results.

I'm doing a fair amount of in-situ characterization for my PhD. If you can share more about you goals, I'd be happy to chime in.

[1] http://www.htw-germany.com/products.php5?lang=en&amp;nav0=3&amp;nav1=6

[2] http://scripts.iucr.org/cgi-bin/paper?S0021889812042720

[3] https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jpclett.5b00891