The Lab

Our laboratory is located in room 304 on the 3d floor of the Science building.

Most of our research projects involve synthesis of organic, bio-organic, or polymeric surfaces supported on inorganic solids, e.g. nano-porous and colloidal silicas, glass, Si wafers, quartz crystal, metals, metal oxides, and others. We are making these materials in the wet chemistry lab, which is equipped with fume hoods, glove boxes, gas and vacuum lines, high-pressure and high-temperature reaction vessels, sonicators, centrifuges, vacuum ovens, filtration, and other synthetic research tools.
Spectrum One FTIR spectrometer (Perkin Elmer) with Variable Angle Specular Reflectance accessory for characterization of thin organic films supported on single crystals. Attenuated Total Reflectance (ATR) and Diffusion-Reflectance (DRIFT) accessories for porous and/or powder materials. High Vacuum Reaction Chamber can be used for in-situ kinetics studies of surface reactions in the controlled environment and temperature.
Contact Angle Goniometer (Rame Hart) to measure dynamic contact angles and to determine surface energy of solid surfaces.  Digital Tensiometer (Kruss) to measure surface tension of liquids.
Autosorb Instrument (Quantachrome) is used to study adsorption of gases and vapors and for characterization of porous structure of adsorbents, stationary phases, dispersed and powder materials.
Thermal properties of the materials are studied using Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) (Thermal Analysis Instruments).
High-pressure Intrusion Porosimeter (Poremaster, Quantachrome) is used to study (i) wetting in porous materials, (ii) characterization of solid-liquid interactions in pores, and (iii) pore size distribution of porous materials.