Albert Research Group
Gel Permeation Chromatography | Synthesis Line | Bruker Dimension ICON Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) | Filmetrics F20 Spectral Reflectometer | Olympus BX53 Upright Optical Microscope
Gel Permeation Chromatography
The Gel Permeation Chromatography, located in Boggs Room 339, is a Waters product. It comes with a Refractive index detector, e2625 separation module, solvent bottle tray, and column heating compartment. It is a convenient technique for characterizing the complete molecular weight distribution of a polymer. For more information contact Baraka Lwoya.
Synthesis Line
A Schlenk line (SL) is a valuable device in synthesis of organic and inorganic chemistry, particularly for oxygen and moisture sensitive reactions. It comes with a variety of compartments such as, vacuum pump, moisture trap, nitrogen supply, bubbler, and vacuum/nitrogen ports (shown below). This equipment is located Boggs Building room 339, in the fume hood. For more information contact Baraka Lwoya.
Bruker Dimension ICON Atomic Force Microscope (AFM)
The Dimension ICON AFM, manufactured by Bruker, is located in Boggs 337. It is capable of multiple modes of operation, such as: Tapping mode, Soft Tapping mode, Contact mode, ScanAsyst, and PeakForceQNM. The AFM can be operated with the sample in fluid using the included fluid cell as well as at temperatures ranging from -40C to 250C using the included heater/cooler stage. The AFM is used to examine surface topography, phase differences in polymer blends and block copolymers, and in PeakForceQNM mode can probe mechanical properties of materials such as moduli, adhesion forces, and material deformation. For additional information, contact Giovanni Kelly.
Filmetrics F20 Spectral Reflectometer
The F20 spectral reflectometer, manufactured by Filmetrics, is located in Boggs 339. Spectral reflectance is a method by which the user can precisely measure the thickness of a wide range of materials based on refractive indices and the way light is transmitted and reflected by a material and its substrate. This system, with its included halogen and UV light sources, can measure film thicknesses ranging from hundreds of microns down to single nanometers. For additional information, contact Giovanni Kelly.
Olympus BX53 Upright Optical Microscope
The BX53 optical microscope, manufactured by Olympus, is located in the Stanley Thomas 109 cleanroom. It is an optical microscope capable of transmittance and reflectance microscopy in bright and dark field. The microscope is also equipped with a polarizing filter and allows phase contrast imaging via Olympus’ DIC mode. Temperature studies can also be conducted via the included Linkam heat stage. The included software is Olympus’ Stream program, which allows real-time material metrics, such as feature size and area, image enhancements, time lapse and video capture, and the ability to manually z-stack and stitch multiple adjacent images together for larger features. For additional information, contact Giovanni Kelly.