Group Facilities
Our group manages or has access to all of the common (and some uncommon) facilities required for conducting catalysis research. Our lab manages the following equipment:
Reactors for reaction kinetics measurements
Flow Reactor Systems: a low-pressure, gas-phase CSTR; a low-pressure, gas-phase PFR; a high-pressure, liquid-phase PFR, and a high-pressure, gas-phase PFR
​
Batch Reactor Systems: Two high-pressure Parr autoclaves; two oil baths equipped with 10 mL glass microreactors
​
Reactive Distillation System: Batch distillation system equipped with a Dean-Stark trap for exceeding equilibrium limitations during esterification reactions
​
Temperature-Programmed Reaction Spectroscopy: A quartz flow reactor equipped with an on-line mass spectrometer for performing standard temperature-programmed reaction spectroscopy experiments (e.g., ammonia TPD, temperature-programmed reduction, oxidation, sulfidation, etc.) and isotope labeling experiments
​
Analytical equipment
​
Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatograph (UPLC): Waters Aquity H-Class UPLC system equipped with refractive index and photodiode array detectors for analyzing low-volatility products in the liquid phase. Can use either specialized UPLC columns or standard high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) columns.
​
Gas-Chromatographs (GCs): Agilent 7820 equipped with a liquid auto sampler and flame ionization detector (FID) for analyzing high-volatility liquid products. SRI 8610 equipped with gas sampling loops and FID, thermal conductivity (TCD) and methanizer detectors for analyzing gas-phase products (including permanent gasses). HP 5890 equipped with a gas sampling loop and FID for analyzing gas-phase products.
​
Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR): Bruker Vertex 70 FTIR bench equipped with liquid-nitrogen-cooled MCT detector. Various cells for analysis of catalysts under in situ and operando conditions. Includes a calibrated gas dosing system for measuring extinction coefficients of species adsorbed on catalyst surfaces.
​
Catalyst synthesis equipment
​
We maintain a suite of equipment for synthesis of catalysts by standard methods (e.g., incipient wetness impregnation, co-precipitation, ion-exchange, etc.). This includes appropriate glassware, pH probes, titration equipment, ovens (both ambient pressure and vacuum), and an apparatus for ex-situ calcination or reduction of catalysts.
​
We also make use of facilities available in both the Forest Bioproducts Research Institute (FBRI), the Laboratory for Surface Science and Technology (LASST), and the Department of Chemistry at UMaine:
​
FBRI Facilities
​
The FBRI analytical lab is equipped with several HPLCs, a GC/FID with liquid autosampler, a GC/MS with liquid autosampler, an ion chromatograph, a CHNS analyzer, and an FTIR spectrometer with an ATR cell for liquid analysis. FBRI also manages a thermo-gravimetric analyzer co-located in our research lab that we use for temperature-programmed calcinations and gravimetric adsorption studies. Several large-scale flow reactors are also co-located in our lab. The Technology Research Center managed by FBRI includes floor-scale equipment for process scale-up and a one-tonne-per-day pilot plant for producing organic acids from biomass.
​
LASST Facilities
​
We have regular access to the facilities in the electron spectroscopy lab within LASST, which includes a Micromeritics ASAP 2020 surface area analyzer (for chemisorption and physisorption studies), an Altamira AMI-200 reaction system, a gas-phase flow reactor equipped for steady-state isotopic transient kinetic analysis (SSITKA), a Nicolet 6700 FTIR equipped with a DTGS detector and a Harrick Praying Mantis DRIFTS cell with environmental reaction chamber, and an XPS equipped with a fast-entry lock capable of environmental pre-treatment. LASST also maintains a Panalytical X'Pert Pro X-ray diffractometer and a Focused Ion Beam-Scanning Electron Microscope, both used for catalyst characterization.
​
Department of Chemistry
​
The Department of Chemistry maintains a nuclear magnetic resonance facility equipped with two 400 MHz Varian spectrometers. A Unity 400 is equipped for liquid-phase analysis with a standard broadband probe, and an INOVA 400 is equipped for both liquid-phase analysis with an inverse detection probe and solid-state analysis with a dedicated probe.
​
​