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Faculty Labs

Resources in Faculty Laboratories

A broad range of investigations are made possible by the variety of experimental instruments and computational facilities maintained in individual faculty laboratories, beyond those maintained in the central CPS Laboratories. Research is ongoing into polymer synthesis, polymer solution rheology, colloidal forces, electrophoresis, filtration, transport in porous media, polymer and protein adsorption, surfactant adsorption and self-assembly, environmental remediation, wetting, ion adsorption, and cell adhesion. Many of the pieces of equipment listed below (which represent only some of the major items found in CPS faculty laboratories) are one-of-a-kind instruments developed at Carnegie Mellon University.  Please contact the faculty members listed after the equipment for details.

Equipment Organized by Phenomenon:

  • Adsorption at the Solid-Liquid Interface
    • TIRF: Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence In Situ Scanning Angle Reflectometry Ellipsometry (Tilton)
    • Spin-coater Metal Evaporator (Tilton)
  • Electrokinetics
    • Rank Brothers Electrophoresis Apparatus Streaming Potential Apparatus (Anderson)
    • Video microscope and optical imaging (Anderson)
  • Colloidal Forces
    • TIRM: Total Internal Reflection Microscopy - monitors at millisecond intervals the intensity of scattering of a single microscopic particles illuminated by an evanescent wave. Owing to the exponential sensitivity of scattering to elevation, TIRM can detect nanometer changes in elevation. The distribution of elevations sampled by Brownian motion of a levitated particle is used to obtain the potential energy profile of interactions between the particle and the plate. (Prieve)
    • AFM: Digital Instruments Multimode atomic force microscopy system, with Nanoscope Illa controller (Schneider)
  • Colloidal Flocculation
    • LALS: Low Angle Light Scattering - increases in scattering with time are used to measure flocculation rates of colloidal dispersions. Because the form factor becomes unity at small angles, scattering is independent of floc shape. When starting with a monodisperse sol, this allows absolute determination of stability ratios. (Prieve)
  • Interfacial Transport and Transport in Complex Media
    • Fluorescence Recovery After Pattern Photobleaching Diffusion and Ultrafiltration Cells (Tilton)
  • Vapor-Liquid Interfaces
    • Langmuir Trough Automated Langmuir-Blodgett Film Deposition Air-Water Interfacial Reflectometer (Tilton)
    • KSV 5000 computer-controlled Langmuir-Blodgett system with Wilhelmy plate (Schneider)
    • Krüss Bubble Tensiometer - Measures dynamic surface tension for surfaces lifetimes below 50 msec (CPS Lab - Jacobson).
  • Dynamic Wetting
    • Long Working Distance Video Microscopy (Garoff)
  • Polymer Solution Physics
    • Differential Refractometer Static, Dynamic, and Brillouin Scattering Photometers Rheometers (Patterson)
    • Waters Delta 600 Semi-prep HPLC system (Schneider)
    • Brookhaven BIC Light Scattering with Goniometer for Dynamic and Static Light Scattering (CPS Lab - Jacobson)
  • Rheology/Flow-Induced Structure
    • Rheometrics ARES Rheometer with OAMII. Controlled strain rotational rheometer for full characterization of rheological properties. Capable of dynamic, steady and transient studies of shear stress and first normal stress properties. Cone/plate, plate/plate and Couette geometries available with thermal control for probing fluids. The ARES is equipped with an optical package for probing birefringence and dichroism under flow. Rheometrics SR-5 rotational rheometer with Peltier temperature control and Rheometrics ARES with OAMII rheo-optics package (Walker)
    • Rheometrics SR-5. Controlled stress rotational rheometer with both fluids bath and Peltier temperature control. Capable of dynamic, steady and transient (recoil) measurements (Walker).
    • SANS-capable Capillary Rheometer. A capillary rheometer designed for measuring pressure drop - flow rate relations for dilute solutions. The design allows for both temperate control and access to the flow field using in situ probes (small angle neutron scattering and LDV) (Walker).
    • Slit Flow Contraction Rheometer. A slit flow cell capable of measuring the pressure drop in polymer blends as a function of flow rate. The device is designed such that small-angle light scattering can be utilized to probe fluid structure simultaneous to the macroscopic rheological measurements (Walker).
    • Stress-controlled rheometers (3); all capable of creep and recovery, and dynamic mechanical measurements; one equipped for rheo-optical studies (Berry).
  • Direct Nanostructural Measurements
    • SANS-capable Capillary Rheometer. A capillary rheometer designed for measuring pressure drop - flow rate relations for dilute solutions. The design allows for both temperate control and access to the flow field using in situ probes (small angle neutron scattering and LDV) (Walker).
    • The Department of Physics houses an x-ray scattering facility which attacks problems related to Complex Fluids Engineering (Suter): please visit http://x2d.phys.cmu.edu/