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Major Research Facilities

Research facilities located in the Department of Chemical Engineering include chemical and materials characterization and processing equipment, a fully-staffed machine shop, and computer server support.

Researchers also have access to several specialized facilities, like CAMD (Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices) and PAL (Polymer Analysis Laboratories).

Spectroscopic facilities consist of a tunable femtosecond pump/probe laser, and a Nd:YAG laser with all 4 harmonics (nanosecond laser); a Raman microprobe was recently constructed. There are two Fourier transform infrared spectrometers and four quadruple mass spectrometers. An energy dispensive X-ray fluorescence analyzer is available in the department.

A VMC in the Computer Numeric Controlled (CNC) Shop

The Department maintains an Electroscan E-3 Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope as a multi-user facility available to researchers around the campus and from outside industries. The instrument can examine samples under vacuum or in the presence of up to 20 Torr of a background gas (typically water vapor) with typical resolution of 100 nm. Using a background gas reduces sample charging problems, which means that insulating samples can be examined without a separate coating step. It also allows users to examine wet samples without dehydration (e.g., polymers and biological materials). Images can be recorded digitally and transferred to users' files, where they can be manipulated and displayed using standard image processing software.

Surface analysis is an important characterization tool for a wide variety of materials, ranging from heterogeneous catalysts to microelectronic devices.

Processing facilities include, a CVD reactor, catalytic reactors, extraction apparatus, an electrochemical impedance analyser, potentiostats, thermogravimetric analyzers, a heat-flow calorimeter, a BET surface area apparatus, several optical microscopes of different types. A total carbon analyzer, a liquid scintillation counter, gel-permeation and supercritical fluid chromatographs, an HPLC, numerous LC's and GC's are used for environmental and related studies. Incubators, shakers and culture cabinets--for biochemical research. Rheological and related properties of melts and solutions are studied on a constant stress (concentric cylinder and cone and plate), capillary and torque rheometers, a dynamic surface tensiometer, and a laser Doppler velocimeter. Large-scale polymer processing equipment includes two single and one twin screw extruders, an injection molder, a high-sheer mixer, and a reaction injection molding machine.

We have several specially constructed high-pressure facilities primarily used for equilibrium thermodynamics and supercritical fluid extraction studies. In the field of separations, there is a wet air stripping unit, a distillation column and a bubble column, all pilot-scale.

Other equipment includes an apparatus to measure and analysis the combustion of single droplets of hydrocarbon in the process ranges from 3,000 to 4,000 psig and a facility which uses tomography and image processing to measure and analysis the turbulent concentration fields in stirred chemical reactors.

The Department houses its own Research and Development Facility staffed by a master machinist and assistants.

Computational facilities include several Intel-based servers providing File, Print, Web and e-mail services and about 120 personal computers connected to the University network and through it to the Internet. Each faculty and staff member has one of these computers in his or her office and the rest are in the laboratories and student computer labs.

The undergraduate student labs include teaching experiments utilizing control systems from Nation Instruments, Fisher-Rosemont and Honeywell TPS.

The department also has extensive experimental and diagnostic facilities in the areas of environmental processes, catalytic and solid-state surface characterization and materials processing.

This page was last modified on January 13, 2004


Cain Department of Chemical Engineering 110 Chemical Engineering South Stadium Road Baton Rouge, LA 70803 Telephone: 225.578.1426 Fax: 225.578.1476 E-mail: cheweblsu.edu
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