Solid state chemistry

Facilities for the synthesis of solid-state inorganic materials:

The video below provides an overview of the equipment for the synthesis and characterisation of thermoelectric materials in our laboratory:

Instruments recently installed  in our laboratory:

UV-Vis Perkin Elmer Lambda 35 for diffuse reflectance measurements
Linseis LSR-3 for Seebeck coefficient and electrical resistivity measurements up to 800ºC
Netszch thermal diffusivity/ conductivity instrument, LFA 447

Existing equipment:

• MBraun glove box. For handling of air and moisture sensitive metal powders. Funded by EPSRC (EP/H050396).
• Advanced Research Systems CCR for Seebeck measurements between 20 K and 350 K. Funded by EPSRC (GR/S54999/01).
• Oxford Instruments continuous flow cryostat for electrical resistivity measurements between 4K and 300K.
• Anter FL3000 for thermal diffusivity/conductivity measurements up to 1000ºC.
• Hot press. For the hot pressing of ceramic powders, using a graphite die, up to 600ºC.
• Suite of chamber and tube furnaces, capable of operating under a range of atmospheres, and of reaching up to 1300ºC.

 

University facilities:

In addition of our own equipment, we make extensive use of equipment available through the Chemical Analysis Facility at the University of Reading for:

• Single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction

• Electron microscopy

• Thermal analysis

 

The photograph on the left shows our high-throughput powder X-ray diffractometer, a Bruker D8 Discover.