Amorphous and Nanostructured Materials

FTIR spectrometer

includes diffuse reflectance and acoustic detection options

Prof. R.J Newport

vis-UV spectrometer

includes reflectance and in situ oven (to 600ºC)

He pycnometer

accurate density measurement of rigid materials (incl. powders and porous materials)

N2 adsorption

determination of pore volume/shape and of internal surface area of porous materials

High temperature furnace

to 1800ºC; small volume, bottom-loading; Pt/Au and Pt/Ir (to 1720ºC) crucibles also available

Other tube furnaces/ovens

small volume, some vertical some horizontal; Oven to ~200ºC, two furnaces to 1000ºC and one to 1600ºC

X-ray diffractometer

Cu anode; powder crystallography

Prof. A.V. Chadwick

X-ray fluorescence analyser

multi-sample elemental analysis (down to Z ~ 14)

AC conductivity bridges

AC conductivity in range 5 Hz to 13MHz

Soft Functional Materials

Size exclusion chromatography (aka GPC)

molecular weights 500 – 1,000,000+; organic solvent soluble polymers; RI and dual channel UV detectors.

Dr. S.J. Holder

Differential scanning calorimeter (DSC)

Perkin Elmer DSC7; N2(l) cooled;  -150 to 600°C operating range.

DSC/thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA)

mass loss as a function of temperature

Leica optical microscope

camera (DC300) and image acquisition software; cross-polarisers; heating stage.

Polarimeter

Standard 1dm cell. Digital readout.

Dr. S.C.G. Biagini