The newly established TEMPR Facility in mid-2019 is a world-class shared laboratory for the physical property characterization and elemental analysis of bulk and thin-film biological, soft, and hard materials. The facility houses a suite of state-of-the-art characterization instruments capable of measuring materials’ thermal, elemental, mechanical, physical, and rheological properties.
Differential scanning calorimeter provides versatile materials phase transition measurements from -90 to 400 °C. In particular, the Discovery series DSC 2500 is equipped with a new Fusion Cell™ for high sensitivity, resolution, reproducibility, and reliability. A linear autosampler allows for worry-free 24/7 operation. Modulated DSC® technology enables efficient separation of complex thermal events. Two thermogravimetric analyzers (Netzsch TG 209 F1 Libra® and TA Instruments TGA Q500) are capable of measuring materials’ mass changes at temperatures from ambient conditions up to 1100 °C with a resolution of 0.1 μg. A simultaneous thermal analyzer NETZSCH STA 449 F3 Jupiter® allows for the measurement of both mass changes and thermal effects up to 1600 °C from a single sample run. An in-line coupled system of a Bruker ALPHA II Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and a QMS 403 D Aëolos® quadrupole mass spectrometer offers comprehensive evolved gas analysis for materials decomposition or desorption.
A combination of a TA Instruments Discovery series HR-2 hybrid rheometer, a dynamic mechanical analyzer Q800, and an Instron 3365 Universal Testing System can measure mechanical properties of soft materials, liquids, formulations, and composites by introducing force from as little as 0.0001 N up to 500 N.
A state-of-the-art Thermo Scientific™ iCAP™ RQ Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer offers ultra-trace elemental analysis at sub-ppb to ppt levels and provides elemental screening in minutes. The coupled laser ablation system with a 193 nm pulsed excimer laser allows for solid sample introduction and surface elemental profiling.
A Waters ACQUITY Advanced Polymer Chromatography (APC) system fractionates and characterizes polymers and nanomaterials with in-series coupled Wyatt μDAWN multi-angle light scattering (MALS) and Optilab UT-rEX refractive index (RI) detectors providing a fast and accurate determination of particle sizes and distributions, absolute molecular weights of polymers, and even 3D geometric features of synthetic or natural macromolecules across a broad range of molecular weights (3000 ~ 2,000,000 g/mol).
