Equipment

In-house equipment

With generous support from Queen's University, NSERC of Canada, CFI of Canada and MRI of Ontario, our Group has established a well-equipped laboratory that provides researchers with state-of-the-art instrumentation and facilities for conducting electrochemistry, electrocatalysis, corrosion science, electroanalytical chemistry, surface science, and materials science research. Some of the specialized instruments and facilities are as follows:

 

Localized class ISO 3 soft-walled cleanroom (12 ft x 8 ft x 8 ft) with 3 ceiling mounted HEPA fan filters
soft-walled cleanroom

In-house designed and built single-crystal growth instrumentation
(Controlled atmosphere flame fusion with 2x IR imaging cameras)
In-house designed and built single-crystal growth instrumentation


Laue back reflection X-Ray diffractometer for in-house single-crystal orientation
Laue back reflection X-Ray diffractometer for in-house single-crystal orientation

 

Veeco ambient and in-situ STM/AFM
(equipped with two scanners, EC cells, a temperature-control unit, and an environmental chamber)
Veeco ambient and in-situ STM/AFM

 

Horiba Scientific ambient and electrochemical confocal Raman microscope located in a dark room for spectroscopic characterization
Scientific ambient and electrochemical confocal Raman microscope

 

Veeco Dektak 8 stylus surface profiler
Veeco Dektak 8 stylus surface profiler
 
Electrochemical instrumentation (Autolab, Versastat and Biologic potentiostats)
Electrochemical instrumentations

 

Electrochemical quartz crystal nanobalance (EQCN)
Electrochemical quartz crystal nanobalance (EQCN)

 

Polishing system
Polishing system

 

Induction annealing system
Induction annealing system

 

Milli-Q water purification system
 

Milli-Q water purification system

 

Fisher Scientific Iso-temp oven
Fisher Scientific Isotemp oven

 

Sigma centrifuge
Sigma centrifuge

 

Custom-design and custom-built electrochemical cells
Custom-design and custom-built electrochemical cells

 


Shared facilities

We have access to major infrastructure that belongs to a consortium of researchers. Some of these instruments are as follows:

Microlab 310-F comprehensive surface analysis system with SAM, SEM, XPS and AES capabilities (located in Chernoff Hall on the first floor, CHE 105). The creation of this facility was initiated by Drs. Gregory Jerkiewicz and David Wardlaw (past Head of the Department), and the financial support was provided by Queen's University and a consortium of researchers. The data acquisition system was upgraded in 2008 with support from NSERC through an RTI grant led by Dr. Jerkiewicz. Our Group is co-owner of the instrument.  Effective January 2009, the Facility is managed by the Department of Chemistry.

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

 

Focused ion beam (FIB), located in Jackson Hall. The facility was created by Dr. Brad Diak (Facility Manager) with financial support from NSERC through and RTI grant and a group of researchers, including Dr. Jerkiewicz.

 

Facility for Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) located in Chernoff Hall.

Scanning and transmission electron microscope