Facilities

The INTERCOLL Research Group occupies 140 m² of research lab space in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (UPC Campus Terrassa). This infrastructure includes chemical synthesis labs, with 3 chemical fume hoods, a food engineering lab, a polymer processing lab and materials characterization labs. The chemical synthesis labs include all standard equipment (hot plates, ovens, rotary evaporator, vacuum pumps, pH/conductivity meters, temperature-humidity chamber etc.), centrifuge and glassware for sample preparation. Two chemical fume hoods are equipped with vacuum gas manifolds (Schlenk lines) for organic/polymer synthesis and another fume hood is equipped with a plasma cleaner and spin coater. The lab is further equipped with a system for fabrication of microfluidic devices.

The characterization labs include:

• Chemical analysis: Fourier Transformed Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR) with ATR and polarized light accessories, UV-Visible Spectrometer, Circular Dichroism Spectrometer, Zeta Potential Analyzer.
• Microscopy analysis: Scanning electron microscope (SEM); Brightfield and darkfield polarizing optical microscopes (OM).
• Thermal characterization: TCi Thermal conductivity analyzer (method MTPS); TA Instruments Q1 Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC).
• Surface analysis: High Resolution Atomic Force Microscope (AFM)

Other instrumental infrastructures are readily available through the Center for Research in Multiscale Science and Engineering (CCEM) of the UPC Barcelona East School of Engineering.