Equipment & Capabilities

CAPP is home to one the most complete and advanced compounding and blending and rheological characterization labs in the United States. Our capabilities include the processing of virtually every thermoplastic  polymer system at scales ranging from 5 g to tens of Kg per hour, as well as unique on-line sensoring capabilities and rheological characterization capabilities in shear and extensional flows, all of which are described here in detail.

 

Other available resources at the Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering and at CWRU include:

  • Advanced synthetic facilities. 
  • An X-ray Structure Laboratory, which is equipped with various small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering instrumentation.  This facility includes several scattering instruments, such as a Phillips XRG 3100, Phillips PW 1830 2D diffractometer, Phillips PW 1729 3D diffractometer, Picker FACS-1 3D diffractometer, and a state-of-the art Rigaku SMAX 3000 with Linkam temperature controller and tensile stages.
  • A Thermal Analysis Laboratory featuring a suite of TA Instruments thermal equipment (DMA, DSC, TGA, and rheometer). 
  • Gel permeation chromatograph (GPC).
  • Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) systems (300 and 600 MHz).
  • A high performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC).
  • A Fourier transform infrared spectrometer.
  • A steady-state polarized fluorescence spectrometer.
  • Several polarized optical microscopes with both conventional and high-resolution cameras.
  • A potentiostat system equipped for cyclic voltammetry and ion conductivity measurements.
  • A UV-vis spectrophotometer. 

 

Advanced mechanical testing equipment is available within the Center for Mechanical Characterization of Materials (CMCM) at the Materials Science and Engineering Department at CWRU. This shared facility houses several computer-controlled universal Instron machines equipped with a temperature control (-125°C to 200°C) cabinet and various load cells.

 

Also available to CAPP is the Swagelok Center for Surface Analysis of Materials, SCSAM, located in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at CWRU. SCSAM is a multi-user analytical facility providing instrumentation for microstructural characterization of materials as well as surface and near-surface chemical analysis. The facilities in SCSAM are available to all users on campus at a federally approved use charge. The following capabilities are available at SCSAM:

  • Transmission Electron Microscopy, TEM: FEI Tecnai F30, Libra 200EF.
  • Scanning Electron Microscopy, SEM: Hitachi S4500, FEI Nova, FEI Quanta.
  • Focused Ion Beam, FIB: FEI Nova, FEI Quanta.
  • Scanning Probe Microscopy, SPM: RHK UHV 7500 VT, DI 3100.
  • Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy.
  • Scanning Auger Microprobe.
  • X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy.
  • X-ray Diffractometry.
  • Rutherford Backscattering Spectroscopy.
  • Time-of-Flight Secondary-Ion Mass Spectrometry.
  • A cryo-capable Leica U6/F6 ultramicrotome is also available within KHS for specimen preparation.