Laboratory Resources

Raman Spectrometer

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) allows the detection of very low concentrations of molecules even down to a single molecule. The Raman spectrometer is also coupled with a reflection-mode UV-visible spectrometer to allow for simultaneous analysis. This Raman spectrometer is also equipped with three lasers: 244nm, 532nm, and 785nm which allows for high versatility in characterization and analysis.

Infrared Spectrometer

Our diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectrometer (DRIFTS) allow us to analyze powdered catalysts in situ. The spectrometer can also be operated in transmission or attenuated total reflectance (ATR) modes.

UV-vis Spectrometer

The UV-visible spectrophotometer allows for quick characterization of nanoparticle solutions. Additionally, the diffuse reflectance accessory can be used to take spectra of powdered samples and in-situ spectra when combined with the photo-reactor.

Surface Area and Porosimetry System

This ASAP 2020 unit allows us to perform BET surface area measurements to estimate the surface area of our catalysts, and obtain pore volume and pore size distributions via BJH method to calculate the catalyst porosity.

Temperature and Flow-controlled Photoreactor

Our photoreactor system incorporates temperature and mass flow controllers which allow use to precisely preform experiments. The photoreactor itself is equipped with small window through which a catalyst bed can be illuminated. Outlet gases are run to gas analysis equipment. The photoreactor can also be placed inside a diffuse reflectance cell thus allowing us to perform in situ characterization of our catalyst.

Computer Cluster

Our research group owns a 240-core Intel Xeon cluster running CentOS with 1.536 TB of memory and a 6 TB of shared network storage space. We have third-party code to run density functional theory calculations and optical dynamics simulations as well as in-house code to run Monte Carlo and electron dynamics. We also have resources allocated on supercomputers at the University of Michigan.

Potentiostat and Rotating Disk Electrode

Our sophisticated potentiostat/galvanostat and rotating disk electrode (RDE) setup allow us to monitor the performance of a wide range of electrochemical systems using techniques such as electrochemical impedence spectroscopy (EIS) and cyclic voltammetry (CV).

Gas Chromatograph

Our lab is equipped with a gas chromatograph with a two thermal conductivity dectectors and one flame ionization detector. This allows us to easily analyze the composition of reactor (or fuel cell) effluent.

Gas Chromatograph - Mass Spectrometer

Our GC-MS system allows us to perform gas analysis and contains a NIST library of mass spectra for many different compounds. This enables us to easily identify unknowns with a very high sensitivity.