October 25, 2022
Thursdays@3: Campus invited to tour catalysis and nanotechnology research lab
The Carl R. Ice College of Engineering will continue its Thursdays@3 laboratory tour series later this week when it opens Placidus Amama's Catalysis and Nanotechnology Research Laboratory from 3-4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, in 2052 and 2030 Durland Hall.
The hourlong come-and-go event will feature a tour of the facilities, as well as demonstrations of some of the equipment available for collaborative use by the university community.
Amama's laboratory is equipped with different reactor systems for synthesis of nanomaterials and evaluation of the performance of heterogeneous catalysts in NOx oxidation, dry reforming and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis reactions. The centerpiece tool in Amama’s laboratory is the state-of-the-art chemical vapor deposition, or CVD, system. The fully automated CVD system, which is LabVIEW controlled, also handles liquid precursors and is equipped with several gas lines, low-pressure operation — 200 mTorr to 500 Torr — and atmospheric operation via a vacuum bypass valve. The system can achieve synthesis of carbon nanotubes, or CNTs, graphene, carbon nanofibers and other nanomaterials, as well as vapor phase deposition of active materials.
Amama, Tim Taylor chair and professor in chemical engineering, focuses his research on the rational design of catalysts for controlled and scalable growth of carbon nanomaterials to exploit their unparalleled material properties in heterogeneous catalysis, electrochemical energy storage and environmental remediation.
The lab tour series will continue on Nov. 10 with a tour of Prathap Parameswaran's advanced wastewater treatment and resource recovery research laboratory.