Facilities

Cleanroom

Colloidal Lab

Permporometry

Surface area and porosity

Water purification

Mercury intrusion porosimeter

Mercury Pycnometer

Spectroscopic Ellipsometry

Glovebox

Ozone Generator

Ion Chromatography

Description: The clean room provides an atmosphere with extremely low levels of airborne particles that prevents the contamination thin film ceramic samples during fabrication and storage.

Specifications: Primary working space is provided with air from 4 HEPA filtration units with an air quality of better than class 100. A hood with 2 HEPA filtration units purifying internal clean room air provides an air quality of better than class 10.

Description: Recently renovated with contamination prevention and cleanliness in mind MacQuigg labs 370 is a large state-of-the-art facility for preparation and processing of high purity colloid solutions.

Specifications: A clean room with and internal hood, two standard hoods and a long counter top with electrical outlets and sinks provide three locations for the preparation and use of colloidal solutions. An inert atmosphere glove box designed to maintain low moisture levels is used to store moisture sensitive chemicals and can be used on a limited basis for experimentation. An ultrasonic mixer, high shear mixer and Büchi Rotovapor 205 include some of the standard tools for colloidal solution preparation. The facility is also fully stocked with amenities for colloidal solution preparation including pH probe & meter, stirrer/hot plates, ultrasonic bath etc.

Description: A membrane characterization tool for the determination of active pore size distributions in disk shaped membranes between 1<dpore<100 nm.

Specifications: The homemade computer automated system uses Brooks mass flow con-trollers to control the flow of O2 and N2 at the feed and permeate side of the membrane. Custom built saturators consisting of heating mantles and condensation columns saturate streams of N2 gas with cyclohexane that is directed toward the feed and permeate sides of the membrane. A water cooling system cools the condensation columns and a homemade membrane test cell to 15°C. A Varian 4900 Micro Gas Chromatograph to determine the permeation of O2 through the membrane.

Description: A Micromeritics ASAP 2020 allows for the determination of surface area and porosity by a volumetric gas adsorption technique.

Specifications: Features three pressure transducers with a low level 0-1 mmHg range for micropore determination. Has two degas ports and an analysis port each independently computer controlled. Two turbo pumps in combination with two diaphragm pumps provide separate and independent evacuation for analysis and degas preventing cross contamination. The simple and elegant use of an isothermal jacket maintains a constant cryogenic height without need of complex leveling devices.

Description: Nanofiltration with inorganic meso-porous membranes is being considered more and more for water purification applications. For specific applications inorganic membranes may have advantages over organic polymer-based membranes due to their rigid pore structure, and thermochemical stability. However, the permeability and, partly through that, the permselectivity of inorganic membranes need to be improved before they can really become competitive. To achieve that, the membrane structure and its synthesis must be optimized and developed further to meet challenging membrane design requirements. Initial water permeation and permselectivity testing of these membranes gave promising results and perspectives of further improvement.

Specification: 1. Wide operation pressure range. 2. Differentiated permeation flow collection. 3. Fully automated monitoring of the chamber operation and data acquisition.

Description: A Micromeritics AutoPore IV mercury porosimeter incorporates low and high pressure intrusion of mercury to determine the connected pore size distribution of porous materials.

Specifications: Four low pressure intrusion ports allow for the simultaneous determination of pore sizes between 360 to 3.6 mm by application of 0 to 345 kPa of pressure. Two high pressure ports allow for the simultaneous determination of pore sizes as small as 3 nm by a maximum application of 414 MPa of pressure. The accuracy of the pore size measurement is ±0.1% of the full scale pressure measurement as determined by the Washburn equation. Penetrometers with sample chamber volumes between 0.38 and 3.9 cm^{3 provides a sufficient range of sample sizes. The intrusion volume accuracy is ±1% of full scale intrusion volume.}

Description: Use mercury immersion technique to measure the apparent density of porous materials accurately.

Specifications: The instrument can be evacuated down to 5 mTorr level and mercury is injected under such high vacuum condition so that air bubble introduced error can be eliminated. The accuracy of the measurement can be lower than 0.01g/ml.

Description: A J.A. Woollam Company Variable Angle Spectroscopic Ellipsometer (VASE) allows for characterization of transparent thin films thickness and optical constants.

Specifications: The vertically mounted VASE has a totally automated angle of incidence from 20-90^{o and offers wide spectral range of 220 to 2200 nm with an additional near infrared detector and fiber optic. The system offers wide flexibility in measurements styles allowing both reflected and transmitted ellipsometry. An autoretarder allows for the measurement of percent depolarization and determination of anisotropy. A sample heating stage allows for heating up to 300oC in a sample chamber that can be purged with a variety of gases. Arguable the greatest advantage of this technique is that it offers completely non-destructive method of measuring thin film thickness for <1 nm to several mm.}

Description: A Vacuum Atmospheres Nexus glove box system provides an O_{2 and H2O controlled atmosphere for the storage and manipulation of reaction sensitive precursor chemicals.}

_{Specifications: The O2 and H2O levels of the N2 atmosphere glove box is maintained at <1 ppm by a gas purification system with absorption capacities of 20 l and 2.3 kg for O2 and H2O, respectively. Meanwhile both the O2 and H2O levels are continuously monitored with respective sensors. An automated cylindrical antechamber with a diameter of 380 mm and a length of 610 mm allows for the transfer of relatively large objects. While a similar manually operated mini-antechamber, with dimensions of 152×305 mm, allows for more routine transfers. A solvent trap is incorporated into the purification system and a balance is located in situ for routine measurements.}

Description: The instrument can be evacuated down to 5 mTorr level and mercury is injected under such high vacuum condition so that air bubble introduced error can be eliminated. The accuracy of the measurement can be lower than 0.01g/ml.

Specifications: A plate UV lamp is installed to generate Ozone at ppm level that is uniformly distributed above a 1 feet by 1 feet area. A 100 cfm air flow is used to constantly remove the generated ozone from the chamber.

Description: High accuracy measurement of anions or cations concentration in aqueous or organic solution. With PDA-100 photodiode array, transition metal ions can be detected down to ppm level.

Specifications: GP50 Gradient Pump: Passivated stainless steel pump heads and flow paths are compatible with aqueous buffers of pH 1 – 12 and organic solvents. Dual reciprocating pistons, microprocessor controlled constant stroke, variable speed. Pump Head Volume: 100 μL [25 μL] Delay Volume (without mixer): < 700 μL [< 300 μL] Maximum Pressure:35 MPa (5000 psi) Pressure Alarm Limits: Upper limit 0 – 35 MPa or 0 – 5000 psi in 1 unit (MPa or psi) increments; low limit settable to up to 1 unit lower than high limit setting. Flow Accuracy: ± 0.5% of setting or ± 2 μL/min, whichever is greater. Flow Precision: Better than 0.1% [better than 0.2%] Flow Rate Range: 0.04 – 10.0 mL/min [0.01 – 2.50 mL/min] Eluent Selection: Four different mobile phase components; each can be proportioned from 0 to 100%.