Materials Research Resources and Capabilities
Formulation – Development of ceramic and glass materials including:
- Energy
- Solid oxide fuel cells, solar thermal concentrators, SSL, Thermoelectrics, Gas purification membranes, Hydrogen storage, Photovoltaics, Photocatalysts, Batteries
- Environment
- Recycling of waste streams into value added products, Optimization of materials manufacturing processes to reduce energy consumption, waste and/or emissions, Porous filters, Anti-corrosion coating
- Healthcare
- Bioactive materials for hard tissue repair, Antibacterial materials, Adsorbents for purification of biomolecules
- Defense/Homeland Security
- High temperature capacitors, Radiation detectors, Hydrophones, High temperature propulsion components, High-strength ceramic and glass armor
Modeling – Computational modeling of material structure, properties, and performance including:
- Molecular dynamics
- Relaxation behavior, ion migration in ionic conductors, diffusion, structure of ceramics and glass, fracture of brittle solids
- Static lattice methods
- Structural stability, defect formation and stability
- Finite element analysis
- Static and dynamic FEA, Multi-physics simulations including applied electromagnetic fields
- SciGlass database
- Historical glass property database, includes calculators for glass property prediction and composition selection
Processing – Comprehensive facilities for the processing of ceramics and glasses, including:
- Materials synthesis methods
- Solid state reaction, precipitation, combustion synthesis, micelle synthesis, sol-gel processing, hetrocoagulation for grain boundary engineering
- Glove boxes
- Includes systems equipped with built-in furnaces for heating under inert atmospheres
- Ceramic processing equipment
- High-intensity mixers, Multiple uniaxial presses (includes heated platens), Cold isostatic press, Filter press, Extruders, Injection molding, Slip casting, Spray drying, Milling equipment (ball, planetary, gyromill, vibratory, etc.), Heated Brabender mixer
- Furnaces for materials processing
- Box furnaces (up to 1600 °C), tube furnaces for controlled atmospheric work, vacuum furnaces (2000 °C)
- Hot isostatic presses, hot uniaxial press, hot forging
- Customized high-temperature microwave furnaces, with atmospheric control
- Resistively heated and gas-fired tunnel kilns
- Spark plasma sintering system
- Thin film/thick film processing
- Spin coating
- Dip coating
- Screen printing
- Tape casting (includes cleanroom facilities for cutting, stacking, lamination, and firing)
- Ion-assisted E-beam PVD
- Magnetron sputtering (DC, Pulsed DC, RF)
- Glass processing equipment
- Facilities for melting oxide and non-oxide glasses, Glass frit preparation, Glass fiber formation, Glass microsphere formation, Ion exchange of glass surfaces for chemical strengthening, refractive index modification
Characterization – Comprehensive facilities for characterizing the structure and properties of materials:
- Scanning electrion microscope (SEM)
- Standard SEM with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy for qualitative chemical analysis
- Field emission SEM with EDX; also includes Electron Backscatter Diffraction for crystallographic texture mapping and an accessory for high temperature SEM studies
- Atomic force microscopy
- Surface morphology and roughness
- Includes probe for magnetic force microscopy
- Optical microscopy
- Capabilities include fractographic analysis for determination of failure mechanisms
- Electron microprobe
- Multi-spectrometer wavelength dispersive spectrometers for quantitative chemical analysis
- Optical interferometry
- Surface morphology and roughness
- X-ray diffraction (XRD)
- Room temperature powder XRD for crystalline phase identification
- High temperature XRD up to ~1500 °C in controlled atmosphere to monitor phase formation and evolution; can be used to trace reaction kinetics
- Rietveld refinement capabilities for quantitative phase analysis and structure solution
- High energy system for pair distribution functions
- Thin film characterization
- Small angle X-ray scattering
- Vibrational spectroscopy
- Infrared spectrometer (transmission, diffuse reflectance, high temperature diffuse reflectance with controlled atmosphere for monitoring sample alteration as function of temperature and/or reaction with gases)
- Infrared microscope
- Confocal Raman microscope with chemical Spectroscopy
- X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
- Quantitative analysis of surface composition and local chemical environments
- Equipped with ion mill for depth profiling
- Inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometer
- Chemical analysis of liquids; chemical analysis of solids with sample digestion
- X-ray fluorescence spectrometer
- Chemical analysis of solid samples
- Powder characterization
- Particle size (dynamic light scattering, X-ray desimentation), Surface area by gas adsorption, Density by helium pycnometry, Zeta potential as a function of pH, Potentiometric titration of suspensions, Viscosity of suspensions (stress-controlled rheometer, strain-controlled rheometer, annular shear cell)
- Glass characterization
- Viscosity measurements (Beam bending, Fiber elongation, Parallel plate, Hot stage microscopy)
- Furnace for measuring surface tension and density of melts by the pendant drop and sessile drop methods; capable of controlled atmosphere and temperature up to 1400 °C
- Optical property testing
- UV-Vis-NIR spectrometry (transmission, specular reflectance, diffuse reflectance)
- Fluorescence spectroscopy (includes fluorescence lifetime measurement)
- Refractive index (Abbe refractometer, Spectroscopic ellipsometer, Becke line)
- Thermal property testing
- Differential thermal analysis/Differential scanning calorimetry for measuring phase changes (melting, crystallization, polymorphic phase transformations), decomposition, combustion, glass transformation temperature, heat capacity, etc.
- Dynamic modulus analyzer
- Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) for measuring mass change as a function of temperature under controlled; can be linked to dehydration or dehydroxylation, decomposition, nonstoichiometry, etc.
- Dilatometry for measuring coefficient of thermal expansion, softening point of glasses, sintering profiles, etc.
- Upcoming capabilities including TGA linked to a mass spectrometer for analysis of evolved gases and Laser Flash Thermal Diffusivity
- Electrical Property Testing
- DC conductivity as a function of temperature
- Impedance spectroscopy (controlled atmosphere and controlled temperature up to 1000 °C); multiple uses include AC conductivity measurements and corrosion testing.
- Thermoelectric power measurement; Seebeck coefficient measurement
- Measurement of capacitance, inductance, resistance, impedance, dielectric constant, loss factor, etc., at controlled temperature
- Piezoelectric characterization by scalar and impedance circle methods
- Measurement of strain and polarization as a function of applied field at temperatures between 20 °C to 280 °C at low frequencies; GHz frequencies for room temperature
- Hall effect measurement at controlled temperature
- Cryogenic measurement capabilities down to 15K
- High temperature melt conductivity
- Mechanical property testing
- Multiple Instron universal testing frames with fixtures for tenile testing, compression testing, flexure testing, etc.
- Hardness indentation
- Ultrasonic measurement of elastic modulus
- Environmental chamber for testing at controlled temperature (-34 °C to 190 °C) and controlled humidity (10% to 95% RH); upcoming capabilities include a chamber for high temperature testing
- High speed camera for ballistics testing
- Digital fabrication
- Laboratory scale and pilot scale systems for additive manufacturing using the binder jetting technique
- 5 axis CNC machining system capable of working with brittle materials
- Coordinate measurement machine for part inspection
- Laser cutting
- Thermoplastic rapid prototyping equipment
- Siemens NX software for integrated CAD/CAM/CAE
- Biomaterials testing
- Standard laboratory equipment including: incubators for cell culture, centrifuges, freezers (-20 °C, -80 °C), flow hood for sterile work, autoclaves, Coulter counter, gel electrophoresis (native and denatured), freeze dryer
- Multi-well plate UV-Vis spectrometer
- Inverted optical microscope with fluorescence imaging capability
- Cytotoxicity testing (Live/dead cell assays, cell morphology)
- Antibacterial testing
- In-vitro reactivity testing
- Interactions of biological molecules with material surfaces