Interaction of light with matter can give very useful information on the nature and properties of the materials and a class of techniques that takes advantage of the above is known as Spectroscopy. Spectroscopic equipment in the Department include FT-IR (with near-mid-& far-IR capabilities), IR Emission, FT-Raman and Fluorescence spectrometers, a UV-VIS Spectropolarimeter and a Mid-IR Microscope for both qualitative and quantitative analyses.
They accommodate conventional and special optical accessories to work through transmission and reflection modes for polarized and unpolarized operations. For polarized mode the cluster has Vibrational Circular Dichroism (VCD) and Linear Dichroism (LD) attachments separately. Moreover, this cluster comprises of “hyphenated” arrangement – which couples two or three analytical equipment in tandem in order to enhance dramatically the analytical capability to save time and to allow small sample sizes and to produce unambiguous results. Therefore, the facilities include TGA/IR/MSD, GC/IR/MSD and LC/IR/MSD.
These facilities are used for research and instruction in
- Synthetic Chemistry (byproduct analysis, functional group identification)
- Reaction Engineering (intermediate and end-product analysis, mechanistic evidence)
The infrastructure under this facility is to introduce the biomolecular engineering aspects into our undergraduate curriculum.
Key equipment and instruments include:
- Clean Room
- MultiPep Peptide Synthesizer
- MALDI-TOF-MS
- Real Time Polymerase Chain Reactor (PCR)
- Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) system
- Gel Documentation Systems
- GENios Tecan Microplate Reader
- KR25 High Speed Centrifuge
- Leica Fluorescent Microscope
- Shimadzu HPLC
With these facilities, students learn the fundamentals of biomolecular science and engineering, such as:
- Synthesis of peptides
- Gene manipulation
- Characterization of protein/DNA
- Human/mammalian cell culture
- Bacteria culture
- Separation of peptides and proteins
- Detection of fluorescent stains and probes
- Colony counting on agar plates
- Chemiluminescent blot
GENERAL ANALYTICAL FACILITIES
In addition to specialized facilities, the Department is also equipped with routine equipment such as
- Elemental Analyzer for the estimation of percentage of elements such as C, H, N, S and O, in newly synthesized compounds, soil samples and plant materials
- Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) Analyzer for the estimation of surface area, micro-pore size and volume in catalytic materials and pharmaceutical powders
- Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC) and simultaneous Thermogravimetric – Differential Thermal Analyzer (TG-DTA) to study the thermal behavior of polymers, catalyst materials and drug coatings
- Total Organic Carbon (TOC) Analyzer for the estimation of organic contents in environmental samples
- Size Exclusion Chromatography System (SEC) to determine the molecular weights of polymers
- Laser Light Scattering System to determine the molecular weight and particle size distribution in liquid suspensions
- Zeta Potential Analyzer to study the stability of colloidal particles, breaking of oil emulsions and dewatering of sludge present in environmental samples.
The Department’s analytical capability is further augmented through a number of fundamental systems such as Gas Chromatographs (with FID & TCD), HPLC units (with VWD, DAD, RID & Fluorescence detector), UV/VIS Spectrometers, UV/VIS/NIR Spectrometer, FTIR Spectrometers (mid-IR range), etc., to provide a comprehensive facility for research and instruction.
SURFACE ANALYSIS & MICROSCOPY FACILITIES
Physical characterization of materials is very important for solid-state research, which typically requires magnification, topography and surface elements identification/composition including their electronic states. Magnification can be achieved by optical, electron and mechanical means (for topography), and the Department houses a number of equipment for the above purposes. These include a Fluorescence/Optical Microscope with a magnification range of ×1000, a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) with a resolution of 3.5 nm (magnification: ×25 to ×300,000) and a Field-Emission SEM with a resolution of 1.0 nm (magnification: ×25 to ×650,000), with both SEM’s capable of EDAX analysis for elemental compositions, a Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) with a resolution of 0.25 nm for point image and 0.14 nm for lattice image (magnification: ×50 to ×1,200,000) and an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) with a scanning resolution of 15µm × 15µm. For elemental compositional analysis and chemical states of materials, the Department has an X-Ray Photoelectron Spectrometer (XPS) with a spatial resolution of 30 µm. For crystal studies, the Department has an X-Ray Diffractometer system (XRD) housing high speed and high precision goniometer with independent and dual axis detection capability for θ to 2θ angles.