Research Facilities

Our laboratory is well equipped to synthesize and prepare polymer membranes and to characterize transport and other polymer properties. Dedicated transport property measurement cells and equipment are coupled with state-of-the-art analytical equipment to characterize a wide range of water and ion transport properties in polymers.

Please feel free to contact us for more information on our experimental capabilities. In addition to computing resources for data collection and analysis, standard laboratory supplies, and a dedicated ultra-pure water system (Millipore), our laboratory capabilities include:

water bottles laboratory Gas Regulator Crosslinker Glassware Ion Chromatography Jars Stirring laboratory Pressure Cell Pump Heads Reference Electrodes Resistance Cell Thermal Analysis Thermal Analysis TQA Q50 Vacuum Over Electrical Meters Aligator Clip
  • chevron_right Analytical Equipment

    Ion Chromatography (configured for anion analysis)

    • Thermo (formerly Dionex) ICS-2100
    • 50 Vial Autosampler

    Potentiostat/Galvanostat/Frequency Response Analyzer (10 μHz to 7 MHz)

    • BioLogic SP-300
    • One standard channel
    • One EIS-capable channel

    Water Vapor Sorption Analyzer (RH-TGA)

    • TA Instruments Q5000 SA with Autosampler
    • Relative Humidity Range: 0 to 98%
    • Temperature Range: 5 to 85 C

    Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA)

    • TA Instruments Q50
    • Temperature Range: ambient to 1000 C
    • Air or UHP Nitrogen Environment

    Digital Multimeters

    DC Power Supply (20 V, 5 A)

    Conductivity meters and probes

    • Data-logging capability

    pH meter and probe

    • Data-logging capability

    Analytical Balance

  • chevron_right Transport Property Measurement Equipment

    Custom temperature-controlled permeation cells

    Custom electrochemical cells

    Flow-through cells for electrochemical permselectivity and resistance measurements

    High-pressure dead-end permeation cells

  • chevron_right Polymer Preparation | Film Casting Equipment

    Polymer synthesis stations

    Film casting and drying (convection and vacuum) ovens

    UV Crosslinker

    • 312 nm Lamp
    • Programmable
  • chevron_right UVA Department of Chemical Engineering Shared Facilities

    Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES)

    • PerkinElmer Optima 8000
    • Highly sensitive cation analysis

    Differential Scanning Calorimetry

    • TA Instruments Q1000 with Autosampler
    • Temperature Range: -90 to 550 C

    Dynamic Mechanical Analysis

    • TA Instruments Q800
    • Temperature Range: -150 to 600 C
    • Frequency Range: 0.01 to 200 Hz

    UV Vis Spectroscopy

    • Shimadzu UVmini-1240
    • Wavelength Range: 190 to 1100 nm

    Metrohm Titrator

    Chemical Engineering Machine Shop

  • chevron_right UVA Nanoscale Materials Characterization Facility (NMCF)

    Raman Spectroscopy

    Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS)

    Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM)

    Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM)

    Visit the NMCF website for more details