Materials Characterization Facility includes advanced instrumentation and capabilities for comprehensive structural, chemical and spectroscopic analysis of a wide range of energy and other functional materials. Aavailable techniques includes electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, surface analysis and optical methods.

 

​

ELECTRON MICROSCOPY

State-of-the-art electron microscopes are becoming the necessary tools for quality control during nanomaterials synthesis and development. The MCF instruments include 200-kV FEI Tecnai F20 FEG-TEM/STEM, and two EDX-equipped SEMs: FEI Nova600 FEG-SEM and TESCAN Vega3 SEM. TEM accessories consist of Gatan GIF2002 and EDAX spectrometers, a Fishione HAADF detector, and several speciallity sample holders (single- and double-tilt, heating, cooling, 3D tomography, etc.). The system is capable of high-resolution (HRTEM), energy-filtered (EFTEM) and Z-contrast (STEM) imaging, diffraction (SAED, CBED, nanodiffrcation), analytical and spectroscopic studies (EELS, EDX, chemical tomography) at nanoscale, as well as, in situ heating (up to 1300 oC) and cooling (down to LN2 temperature) experiments. The imaging point resolution of 0.24 nm and spectroscopic energy resolution of 0.8eV can be obtained with this system.

 

X-RAY DIFFRACTION 

BRUKER Discovery D8 HR-XRD is a state-of-the-art, highly accurate, and versatile x-ray diffractometer system. It is outfitted with a dynamic scintillation detector, a LynxEye(TM) detector, and Dome Heating Stage DHS 1100 with a gas injection system, which enables sample heating as high as 1100 oC. This instrument can be used for both, powder diffraction, as well as, high-resolution analysis. The system is equipped with Bruker EVA software and ICCD PDF-2 database allows for hase identification composition analysis.

 

UHV SURFACE ANALYSIS 

VG Scientific MultiLab 3000 – this custom-built UHV system offers unique opportunities for various types of surface characterization techniques including XPS, Auger spectroscopy, and UPS. The system operates at the 10-9 Torr base pressure and is equipped with CLAM 4 hemispherical electron energy analyzer, Al/Mg x-ray twin source, and differentially-pumped He cold cathode capillary discharge UV lamp. The system provides surface chemistry and electronic structure data including valency, binding energies and band structure parameters such as work function, and valence band maximum energy.

 

OPTICAL SPECTROSCOPY 

Renishaw Raman/PL system equipped with three excitation laser lines of 325 nm, 442 nm, and 632.8 nm and detectors and optics allowing measurements in the spectral range from 0.7 eV to 3.7 eV. The setup has been optimized for both UV and visible Raman spectroscopy. It is also equipped with variable temperature cold stage (liquid nitrogen temperature to room temperature). PerkinElmer Spectrum BX FTIR, Brookhaven Instrument Corporation 90Plus Particle Size Analyzer, and PerkinElmer UV/VIS/NIR spectrophotometer are also available.

 

HIGH-PRESSURE CAPABILITIES

Gas membrane-driven high temperature (up to 1000 oC through resistive heating) Easy Lab Diacell Helios diamond anvil cell (DAC) for high pressure (up to ~20 GPa) synthesis experiments. System accessories include Hylozoic Micro EDM System for drilling micro-sized holes in gaskets and optical pressure monitoring system based on luminescence of ruby crystals.