Laboratory: Equipment Available in Our Laboratory.
1. Five Nitrogen Atmosphere Glove Boxes for moisture and air-sensitive chemistry.
2. Thermogravimetric Analysis Equipment, Computer controlled Shimadzu TGA-50. Differential Scanning Calorimetry and Differential Thermal Analysis, Shimadzu DSC-50 and DTA-50.
3. Two IPDS STOE (2 and 2T) single crystal X-ray diffractometers equipped with image plate detectors and low temperature data collection capability (down to 5K).
4. Electrical resistivity equipment from MMR Technologies (temp. range 80-400 K).
5. ULVAC ZEM-3, Seebeck Coefficient /Electrical Resistance Measuring System (range 300-1200 K).
6. Home built Hall effect system for room temperature measurements.
7. A home-built electrical conductivity (in-line four-probe) apparatus for measurements from 25-500 °C.
8. Several Schlenk and High-vacuum lines for air and moisture sensitive material handling.
9. Thirty-five computer-controlled high temperature furnaces (1000 °C)
10. Four vertical drop 3-zone Bridgman Furnaces (1200 °C).
11. RF induction furnace.
12. Three large rocking furnaces (1200 °C).
13. Arc welding station.
14. Shimadzu UV/Vis Near-IR spectrophotometer for solids (for band-gap measurements)
15. Biorad-Digilab FT-Raman Spectrometer.
16. INEL position sensitive detector with computer control (Cu K alpha radiation).
17. Nicolet 740 wide range 15000-50 cm-1. Equipped with a high powered Spectra-Tech Olympus microscope for microsampling and reflectivity spectra of metallic samples. This spectrometer is used for band-gap determination of potential thermoelectric materials.
18. Micromeritics ASAP 2020 Accelerated surface area and porosimetry analyzer. This instrument uses the gas sorption technique to generate high-quality data for research applications. The system includes the micropore option and the high-vac option. This instrument can easily obtain hydrogen adsorption isotherms. It allows users to collect isotherms by specifying absolute pressure targets, which are commonly used for hydrogen adsorption studies. The ASAP 2020 report system can provide pressure/composition isotherms.
19. Dr. Sinter-Lab Spark Plasma Sintering System SPS-515 S with hydraulic press (up to 50 kN). Working temperature up to 2000 °C.
20. Struers Accutom-50, accurate crystal cutting saw with speed range of 300-5000 rpm.
21. Home built melt-spinner for the preparation of chalcogenide glasses through rapid quenching of melts. This apparatus is inside an argon filled glovebox.
22. Hamamatsu 150 W xenon lamp unit.
23. Several photochemical reactions equipped with Xe lamp and a variety of optical filters.
24. Two Laser Flash Analysis instrument (LFA-457, Netzsch) thermal diffusivity measurement system
25. X-ray diffraction (PXRD) on Rigaku Miniflex600 powder X-ray diffractometer with Ni-filtered Cu Kα radiation (λ = 1.5406 Å)
26. Infrared spectrometer (Nicolet 6700 FT-IR spectrometer) in the mid-IR range (6000~400 cm-1).
27. Photoemission yield spectroscopy in air (PYSA, AC-2, Riken-Keiki), for determining work functions and the valance band maximum energy (VBM) of samples.
28. KP Technology Ambient Pressure Photoemission Spectroscopy (APS) systems with excitation range of 3.4 eV to 7.0 eV, for work function measurements.
The group also has use of Northwestern University's Analytical Services Laboratory and the Material Science Deparment Facilities.