Major Departmental 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.

A VMC in the Computer Numeric Controlled (CNC) Shop

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

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.