MSE’s large and diversified program of research is carried out in outstanding research facilities in the MSE Department and in a cluster of separate materials research centers located on the Iowa State University campus and Ames National Laboratory (USDOE).
Centers and Laboratories
3347 Hoover
Equipment:
- Malvern Omnisec Gel Permeation/Size Exclusion Chromatography System
- Malvern Zetasizer Nano ZS Dynamic Light Scattering System
- Carver Pellet Press
- Low-temperature box furnaces
3355 Hoover
Equipment:
- Optical microscopes with cameras
- Stereomicroscopes with cameras
- Vickers and Knoop Microhardness tester
- Rockwell Hardness tester
Polishing Lab
3355A Hoover
Equipment:
- Sectioning saw
- Mounting press
- Grinding/Polishing wheels
- Auto-Polishers
- Low-speed diamond saws
- High- and low-temp box furnaces & high-temp tube furnaces
- High temp = 1100-1700 °C
- Low temp = Up to 1100 °C
- Squaroid duo-vac oven & lab oven
Thermal Analysis/Mechanical Testing
3364 Hoover
Equipment:
- Perkin-Elmer DSC 4000
- TA Instruments TGA5500, TMA 450, and RSA-G2 (DMA)
- Netzsch STA 449 F3 Jupiter
- Instron 3367, 3369, and 5549 Universal Testers with:
- 10N, 50N, 1 kN, 30 kN, and 50 kN static load cells
- Threaded grips, wedge-action grips, 3-pt bend fixture, and compression anvils
- Bluehill 3 software
- Charpy impact testers (high energy for metals and low energy for polymers)
Electron Microscopy/X-Ray Diffraction
3365 Hoover
Equipment:
- FEI Inspect F50 Field Effect Gun SEM
- Rigaku Smartlab XRD
- Sputter coating with options for gold, silver, Pt/Pd, and carbon coatings
Thermal and General Analysis
0305 Gilman
Equipment (TA Instruments):
- DSC Q2000 with autosampler and liquid nitrogen cooling system
- DSC Q20
- TGAQ50
- AR2000 Rheometer with liquid nitrogen cooling system
- Four Point Probe thin-film resistivity test station
- Cary 630 FTIR Spectrophotometer
- Cary UV-Vis-NIR Spectrophotometer
- Cary Fluorescence Spectrophotometer