Extensive materials synthesis and characterisation capability is available within in the group. Advanced characterisation capability includes:
- Six powder diffraction instruments (Mo, Cu, Co radiation) including two rotating anode instruments with variable temperature and atmosphere and in situ battery measurement capability.
- Single crystal (Rigaku rotating anode) X-ray diffraction.
- X-ray instrumentation for parallel sample and thin film analysis (rotating anode).
Transmission electron microscopy facilities are located in the Albert Crewe Centre for Electron Microscopy and consists of a JEOL 2100+ TEM and JEOL 2100 Cs Corrected STEM along with a FEI Helios Nanolab 600i dualbeam FIB/SEM as well as SEM instruments including EBSD capability.
Parallel robotic synthesis, solvothermal reaction vessels, robotic liquid and solid handlers and synthesis robots both in our laboratories and in the Materials Innovation Factory.
The group also has over fifty furnaces (muffle and tube), five ball mills including inert atmosphere capability, high pressure synthesis (Rockland multianvil), gas sorption/breakthrough measurements (Micromeritics, Quantachrome and Hidden instruments), GC-MS, liquid phase catalytic batch reactors (to 100 bar), gas phase catalytic reactors, TPR/TPO, FE-SEM, FTIR, particle sizing, NMR, (combinatorial) RHEED-monitored Pulsed Laser Deposition chambers for thin film growth (Neocera and PVD Products), multi-mode AFM (Agilent), spark plasma sintering (Thermal Technologies).
We have state-of-the-art equipment for solid state property measurements, for example:
- SQUID magnetometry (7T, ac option, magnetoelectric coefficient measurement, 4-1000K)
- PPMS (14T; for thermal and electrical transport, heat capacity, dielectric properties)
- Dilatometry
- Laser Flash Analysis of thermal conductivity
- Seebeck, Ferroelectric, piezoelectric and strain measurements
- Variable pO2 dc conductivity and impedance spectroscopy
- Symmetrical and full-cell SOFC characterisation.
We have the ability to make measurements on solid electrolytes over a range of temperatures with sputter-deposited electrodes all within a glove box. We have the capability to prepare battery cells (coin/Swagelok cells, crimping, disassembling) for electrochemical measurements (Biologic multi-channel potentiostats/galvanostats, Maccor Series 4000 battery cycler), all within a solvent glove box dedicated to working with Li and Mg electrode materials in particular.
For high performance computing, as part of the project the group has access to the UK supercomputing facilities ARCHER2, CIRRUS and the UoL HPC facility BARKLA including dedicated nodes available to the group. The group is a member of the HPC Materials Chemistry Consortium.
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