Chemistry & Biochemistry
Laboratories and facilities
Currently, we are located in Wing 3 of the Chemistry and Biochemistry Complex. However, in 2023 our offices and laboratory will be moving into the new Chemistry laboratory! The image above is the newly planned building.
Synthesis laboratories
Glove boxes
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Two MBraun glove boxes used as "dry boxes" for powder synthesis
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VAC glove box used as a wet box for air-free syntheses involving solvents
Furnances and ovens
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Mellen 1200 °C large volume box furnace.
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Mellen 1600 °C small volume box furnace.
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Carbolite 1500 °C single zone tube furnace
Sealing station
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Stainless steel fast vacuum line for torch sealing ampoules
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Turbo Pump
Binder furnaces
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Binder convection ovens for regular heating and hydrothermal synthesis
Air-free line
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Schlenk line with trap and vacuum system consisting of an all-glass diffusion pump attached to an Edwards rotary vane pump
Furnaces for gas flow
Two Lindberg tube 1100 °C furnaces with quartz retort systems.
Thermo Gravimetric Analyzer
Ball Mill Grinder
More tube furnances
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Carbolite 1200 °C triple zone tube furnace
Shared instrumentation
Located in XCC (Chemistry) and CNAM (Physics)
Center for Nanophysics and Advanced Physics (CNAM) Link
MPMS with SQUID
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Magnetic Properties Measurement System from Quantum Design
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SQUID with helium recovery system
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Vertical field up to 7 T
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Temperature ranging from 1.8 K to 310 K
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Furnace insert for temperatures up to 800 K
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Physical Properties Measurement Systems from Quantum Design
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Electrical resistivity measurements below 300 K
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Maximum field up to 9 T for magnetotransport
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Heat capacity measurements
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MPMS with SQUID
Quantum Design SQUID MPMS3 with fields up to 7 T and temperatures ranging from 1.8 K to 400 K
Single Crystal Laue Diffractometer
Single crystal Laue x-ray diffractometer used primarily to align single crystals
C2 powder diffractometer
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C2 Bruker Discover with Vantec area detector for maximizing intensity, useful for parameteric studies and small samples
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Variable temperature stage up to 900 °C for C2
D8 powder diffractometer
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D8 Bruker Advance powder diffractometer (Cu K-alpha) with LynxEye detector and automated 9-sample changer
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Databases include the ICDD powder patterns, ICSD for inorganic crystal structures, and CSD for organic crystal structures
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Full TOPAS software for structural refinements
Single crystal diffractometer
Apex2 Bruker single-crystal diffractometer (Mo K-alpha) with graphite monochromator and CryoStream for temperatues between 80 K and 400 K
NIST Center for Neutron Research
BT1 Neutron Diffractometer
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High resolution powder diffraction
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32 detectors with Soller collimation
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Ge(311), Cu(311), and Ge(733) monochromators for 2.079 ? 1.54 ? and 1.197 ?respectively
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Temperatures ranging from 0.3 to 2000 K
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Available with magnet fields up to 7 T
Located about 30 miles from UMD
In order to elucidate the magnetic and nuclear structure of our inorganic materials, we heavily utilize neutron diffraction. Neutron scattering is a true bulk technique since it interacts with the nuclei of your sample instead of the electron cloud as in X-rays. A handy link to help you know the scattering power, known as the scattering length, of the nuclei in your sample is the NIST site on isotopes (Link) . Just as important is knowing whether any of these have a high absorption or incoherent cross section, which would be detrimental to a good powder pattern